CAG finds shortcomings in Rs 52,000 cr farm debt waiver scheme

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has found number of shortcomings in the implementation of the Rs 52,000 crore farm debt waiver scheme pointing out that thousands of beneficiaries were not eligible while those eligible were denied the benefits.
Report of the CAG, tabled in Parliament today, also discloses violation of the guidelines for implementation of the scheme with a private schedule commercial bank shown to have received reimbursement for loan of Rs 164 crore extended to Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs).
There was also prima facie evidence of tampering, over writing and alteration of records, the report said.

The CAG noted "the monitoring of the scheme was also found to be deficient".
It has recommended immediate corrective measures to take action like recovery of money paid to ineligible beneficiaries and loans extended to MFIs, action against bank official and auditors and filing of FIRs in cases of tampering of records, issue of debt waiver and debt relief certificates to farmers.
Pointing out errors of inclusion and exclusion, the report said "out of 9,334 accounts test checked in audit across nine states, 1,257 accounts (13.46 per cent) were those which were found in audit to be eligible for benefit under the scheme, but were not considered by the lending institutions while preparing list of eligible farmers".

Further out of 80,299 accounts granted debt waiver or relief, in "8.5 per cent of cases, the beneficiaries were not eligible for either debt waiver or the debt relief".
The report deals with Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS) 2008 under which 3.69 crore small and marginal farmers and 60 lakh other farmers were given debt relief to the extent of Rs 52,516 crore.
"Overall, the Performance Audit revealed that in ...(22.32 per cent of cases test checked) there were lapses/errors which raised serious concern about the implementation of the scheme," it said.