PPRC criticises Kejriwal for distorting CAG figures on Delhi finances

The Public Policy Research Centre (PPRC) has condemned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for distorting facts in an audit report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India which said the fiscal deficit of state government improved to a surplus of Rs 113 crore in 2017-18.

PPRC said Kejriwal is misleading the people of Delhi by exploiting even a statutory document by a constitutional body like the CAG's Audit Report on State Finances.

"The CAG report says Delhi government has been in profit for five years and we have ended our term on a clean chit and appreciation from the CAG," Kejriwal reportedly said.

"This is a blatant misrepresentation of facts," said PPRC Head of Operations Nikhil Kumar. "The CAG report that the Chief Minister referring to analyses the period from 2013-14 to 2017-18 whereas the Chief Minister conveniently disguises this fact and claiming that the report speaks of his own term from 2015 to 2020," he said.

"The Chief Minister did not think twice about lying on the floor of the Assembly, making a mockery of the most important institution in our democracy," said Kumar.

He said the reality behind fiscal deficit figures of Delhi lies beyond the 2017-18 period that the current CAG audit report considered.

From 2017-18, the fiscal deficit has risen astronomically from a Rs 113 crore surplus to Rs 689.16 deficit in the 2018-19 (revised estimates) and skyrocketing to Rs 5,901.9 crore (budget estimates), said Kumar.

"The Chief Minister failed to show these true figures to the public of Delhi," he said. "This means from March 2018, where the CAG report ends, the Delhi government lost control on the fiscal deficit steadily and reached the current levels."

When taken fiscal deficit per capita, this is 55 times rise from the 2017-18 levels, that too in less than two years.

"In this background of continuous slipping of fiscal deficit, the Delhi government must release a white paper on the latest macroeconomic indicators of Delhi economy and objectively present to the public its efforts in managing the fiscal stability of the government, keeping the focus on fiscal deficit," said Kumar.

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