Audit Reports
Jharkhand
Report No. 1 of 2022 - Report of the C&AG on General, Social, Economic and Revenue Sectors including SPSEs for the year ended 31 March 2020
Overview
The Audit Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on General, Social, Economic and Revenue Sectors including SPSEs, Government of Jharkhand for the year ended 31 March 2020 was presented to the State Legislature on 04 August 2022.
GENERAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SECTORS
2.1 Audit of procurement of machines, equipment and accessories for Dental Institute, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi
Against an original proposal of ₹ 5.80 crore for procurement of dental equipment as approved by the Governing Council, the Director, RIMS submitted detailed budget of ₹ 9.29 crore to the State Government. However, RIMS procured dental equipment valued at ₹ 37.17 crore during 2014-19 which was 400 per cent of the budget.
In a tender invited in January 2016, technical and financial evaluation was not done on combined scoring pattern as per terms of the NIT giving weightage to the technical qualification and financial offers without recording any reasons. The purchase and technical committees approved the lowest rates from the rates quoted by technically qualified bidders without giving scores at any stage. Against this tender, 20 items valued at ₹ 18.52 crore were procured.
Though instructed by the Health Minister, the Director, RIMS neither cross-verified the compliance submitted by the accused supplier nor surveyed the market price or procurement price of similar equipment in other medical institutions prior to payment of outstanding bill of ₹ 5.40 crore and further procured equipment valued ₹ 11.40 crore from the same supplier without obtaining the approval of the Health Minister.
The Finance and Accounts Committee did not decide the tenders though required under the Regulations of RIMS. Instead two different committees (Purchase Committee and Technical Committee) having no defined role in the Regulations were entrusted with the decision of tender by RIMS.
There was absence of uniformity and transparency in technical evaluation of bids besides arbitrariness in deciding technical qualification in favour of a bidder with respect to procurement of basic and advance dental chairs, mobile dental van and 15 other items valued at ₹ 25.70 crore.
RIMS incurred avoidable expenditure of ₹ 14.25 crore on procurement of dental equipment (Chairs, Mobile dental van and Radiovisiography) compared to the rates given in the budget estimates.
Attachments and accessories with basic dental chairs, advanced dental chairs and Mobile Dental Van were either missing or of lower specifications. Two out of ten supplied Radiovisiography systems were of different model. RIMS also failed to impose penalty of ₹ 2.37 crore for delayed supply.
Dental equipment worth ₹ 12.02 crore supplied to the Dental Institute was not found entered in inventory and was thus fraught with the risk of misuse.
Equipment worth ₹ 1.94 crore purchased (August 2016) for laboratory and the operation theatre (OT) was found lying idle in the store as laboratories and OT had not been set up as of May 2020. Disinfectants worth ₹ 17.85 lakh purchased in August 2016 for use in the OT had expired.
REVENUE SECTOR
General
The total receipts of the Government of Jharkhand for the year 2019-20 was ₹ 58,417.14 crore. The revenue raised by the State Government was ₹ 25,521.43 crore (43.69 per cent of the total receipts). The share of receipts from the Government of India amounting to ₹ 32,895.71 crore (56.31 per cent of the total receipts) comprised of State’s share of divisible Union taxes of ₹ 20,593.04 crore (35.25 per cent of the total receipts) and grants-in-aid of ₹ 12,302.67 crore (21.06 per cent of the total receipts). Tax revenue raised by the State Government increased by 13.69 per cent in 2019-20 over 2018-19, whereas non-tax revenue increased by 5.96 per cent over the same period.
Arrears of revenue as on 31 March 2020 in respect of taxes on sales, trade etc., taxes on vehicles, state excise, land revenue and mining receipts amounted to ₹ 12,179.30 crore, of which ₹ 2,898.27 crore was outstanding for more than five years.
Commercial Tax Department
Audit on GST refunds
The proper officers did not adhere to the prescribed timelines and issued acknowledgment of refund applications in 19 cases with delays ranging between nine and 246 days beyond the prescribed period of 15 days of filing the claim. Besides, acknowledgments in 12 cases were not issued till date.
The proper officers did not adhere to the prescribed period of 15 days of filing of claim to communicate the deficiencies in Form GST RFD-03 in 12 cases resulting in issuance of memos with delays ranging between three and 215 days.
In the absence of a mechanism for monitoring of refund processing claims at different stages, sanctioned amount of ₹ 5.97 lakh in nine cases was not paid to the claimants while payment in 33 refund cases were made with delays beyond the prescribed timeline of 60 days and consequently the department was liable to pay interest of ₹ 5.48 lakh.
The proper officer did not adhere to the prescribed period and sanctioned provisional refund in eight cases with a delay ranging between 7 and 99 days beyond the prescribed period of seven days of issue of acknowledgment.
The proper officer failed to cross verify the monthly return in GSTR-3B available with the Department which resulted in incorrect allowance of refund of ` 0.15 lakh to the claimant.
In the absence of a mechanism to synchronize the dues of JGST Act and earlier repealed Acts, dues of ₹ 0.42 lakh were not adjusted from the refund claim of two cases resulting in excess payment of refund of ₹ 0.42 lakh.
Other observations (Value Added Taxes)
The Assessing Authorities while finalising the assessments did not scrutinise the information furnished by the dealers which led to non-detection of concealment of turnover of ₹ 3,271.08 crore by 39 dealers and consequential under assessment of tax and penalty of ₹ 812.99 crore.
The Assessing Authorities enhanced turnover of nine dealers on account of suppression of sale and levied additional tax of ₹ 43.84 crore but did not levy penalty of ₹ 131.51 crore.
The Assessing Authorities of 14 circles disallowed exemptions, concessions and adjustment of ITC of ₹ 2,264.96 crore. However, interest of ₹ 102.24 crore was not levied as per the provisions of the Act.
The Assessing Authorities while finalising the assessments in case of 29 dealers, allowed ITC of ₹ 109.51 crore instead of ₹ 85.70 crore. This resulted in allowance of excess ITC of ₹ 23.81 crore.
The Assessing Authorities determined GTO/ TTO of ₹ 1,962.03 crore instead of ₹ 2,407.40 crore in case of seven dealers, which resulted in short determination of GTO by ₹ 445.37 crore and consequential under assessment of tax of ₹ 22.33 crore.
The Assessing Authorities, while finalising the assessments levied the incorrect rates of tax on taxable turnover resulting in short levy of tax of ₹ 14.53 crore.
The Assessing Authorities levied concessional rate of two per cent CST on turnover of ₹ 92.59 crore instead of applicable rates of five per cent CST and 14 per cent under JVAT. This resulted in under assessment of CST of ₹ 10.64 crore.
Mines and Geology Department
Failure of the Department to verify the rate of royalty in accordance with provisions of the Act/Rules resulted in short levy of royalty of ₹ 15.42 crore.
Excise and Prohibition Department
The Department did not take action to ensure lifting of minimum guaranteed quota which resulted in short lifting of liquor and non-levy of penalty equivalent to loss of excise duty of ₹ 2.07 crore.