Par panel questions expenditure pattern of MSME Ministry

A Parliamentary panel has expressed "serious concern" over the under-utilisation of funds by the MSME Ministry in its planned schemes, raising questions on the pattern of expenditure.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry pointed out that the MSME ministry did not uniformly utilise the funds over the year and instead, over-spent in the last quarter to meet annual target.
"The Committee finds that year after year, the actual expenditure in last quarter has far exceeded the limit of 33 per cent ... This year too, till December 31, 2014, by Ministry's own admission it could spend only 55 per cent of the allocation with DC (development commissioner)-MSME utilising less than 50 per cent," the panel said in its report.

Putting a question mark over the ministry's way of achieving targets, the panel said: "The committee wonders that despite cut in RE (revised estimate) and further under utilisation, the ministry is able to meet majority of its targets. Obviously targets were either kept modest or the demands for allocation were inflated," it said.
The panel also criticised the MSME ministry which had "not done any survey on whether its schemes are reaching to unorganised sector nor has it taken steps so far to facilitate doing business for the unorganised sector".
Regarding the constraints in respect of the Rs 10,000 crore fund for startups as declared in Budget 2014-15, the committee recommended that the Ministry take up the issue with RBI for appropriate redressal.

The MSME Secretary had said before the Committee that the Department of Financial Services said the scheme would have to be implemented using the funds which are available with the RBI coming from the shortfall in the priority sector lending.
However, it stated that such Budget announcements were made "without consultation between ministries", it said "Budget speech are not operational within the financial year nor is any budget provision made during the entire year...Budget announcements should be treated as assurances to House and should be complied within three months of passage of the Budget.