SFAR West Bengal 2024-25
State Finances Audit Report
Government of West Bengal
This chapter reviews West Bengal's budgetary process, revealing significant gaps between budget estimates and actual expenditure, with issues like excess spending, persistent savings, and last-minute fund surrenders. It highlights weaknesses in financial planning, control, and compliance, stressing the need for realistic budgeting and timely fund utilisation.
In compliance with Article 202 of the Constitution of India, in respect of every financial year, a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of the State for that year, called "the Annual Financial Statement (Budget)" is to be laid before the State Legislature. The estimates of the expenditure show 'charged' and 'voted' items 41 of expenditure separately and distinguish expenditure on revenue accounts from other expenditure. Legislative authorization is necessary before incurring any expenditure by the State Government.
As per the West Bengal Budget Manual, the Finance Department is responsible for preparing the annual budget by obtaining estimates from various departments. The departmental estimates of receipts and expenditure are prepared by Controlling Officers and submitted to the Finance Department on prescribed dates. The Finance Department consolidates the estimates and prepares the Detailed Estimates called 'Demand for Grants'. The State budget primarily comprises of the following documents:
The Government of West Bengal has also introduced a 'Gender and Child Budget Statement' in 2024-25.
For optimum utilization of resources, balance needs to be maintained between efficient management of tax administration/other receipts and public expenditure. Persistent savings/excesses indicate need for improvement in the underlying budgetary processes.
Details of total appropriation obtained from State legislature, actual expenditure and savings are summarized in Table 2.1.
Compared with the Total Budget, both the Sections - Revenue and Capital- together recorded savings of 18.09 per cent during 2024-25 with 14.11 per cent savings in Voted and 28.39 per cent savings in Charged Sections. In the Voted Section, significant savings were noticed in Capital Section (42.67 per cent) pointing to the inability of the government to create assets as projected while in the Charged Section, Public Debt-Repayments had the largest savings (48.78 per cent). Such high percentage of savings is attributed to the fact that the entire provision Ways and Means Advance in Grant No. 18 (Finance) amounting to ₹ 30,000 crore remained unutilised as the State Government was able to maintain minimum balance with RBI throughout the year and the State did not resort to Ways and Means advance/overdraft during the year 2024-25.
Further, as depicted in Table 2.1, only 3.29 per cent of the savings under 33 grants were surrendered indicating that savings could not be anticipated in time for surrender, to facilitate timely reappropriation. This points not only to inefficient financial planning but also raises doubt about capacity of the State to spend efficiently.
Trends in the original budget, revised estimate, and actual expenditure for the period 2020-21 to 2024-25 are given in Table 2.2.
Table 2.2 shows that although during each year of 2020-25, the actual expenditure remained less than the Original Budget, the State resorted to Supplementary budget (which constituted four to 10 per cent of the Original Budget during 2020-2025) further increasing the savings. It also shows that despite reduction of Original Budget by 7 to 13 per cent through Revised Estimate, 8 to 12 per cent of the Revised Estimate remained unutilised.
From the Chart 2.1, it is seen that there was a consistent divergence between Revised Estimates vis-à-vis Actual Expenditures during the last five years.
Component wise analysis of the Budget and Expenditure for the Financial Year 2024-25 is summarized in Table 2.3. The summary of explanations received in case of variations in Appropriation Accounts is depicted in Chart 2.2.
Table 2.3 depicts that while Committed expenditure remained largely close to projections, there were significant deviations in case of CSS, State share for CSS and EAP.
The deviations in respect of EAP were mainly attributable to savings under two projects namely the West Bengal Major Irrigation and Flood Management Project (World Bank & AIIB 43) in Grant No. 32- Irrigation & Waterways Department (₹ 441.44 crore) and the West Bengal Electricity Distribution Grid Modernization Project (World Bank) under Grant No. 43-Power Department (₹ 325.08 crore). These savings were partially offset by excess expenditure of ₹ 210 crore under the West Bengal Piped Water Supply (JICA) under Grant No. 45 -Public Health Engineering Department.
Out of total 6,691 Sub-Heads, explanations for variance from budget were required in case of 2,549 Sub-Heads. However, explanations were received from the Government only in case of 53 Sub-Heads as depicted in Chart 2.2 below.
As the Government did not provide reasons for deviations in majority of the Schemes (Sub-Heads) (98 per cent), the Appropriation Accounts failed to explain constraints of the Government in fully utilising the budget provided by the Legislature.
Government of West Bengal introduced Gender and Child Budget for the first time in Budget 2024-25. Gender Budget includes budgetary provision for (a) the development schemes for girls under age of 18 years and (b) women over 18 years while the Child Budget covers budgetary provisions for schemes for both girls and boys under 18 years of age. The total allocation under the Gender Budget in 2024-25 was ₹ 96,272.50 crore (revised ₹ 1,04,384.32 crore). There were common segments in allocations of both gender and child budget.
The Child Budget for West Bengal had a projection of ₹ 57,419.19 crore (revised ₹ 61,093.83 crore) in 2024-25. As per budget documents, the allocations for Gender budget and Child budget came to 44.42 per cent and 17.57 per cent of the overall allocation for development schemes in the State, respectively.
The Gender and Child Budgets, however, contained the allocations against various schemes without indicating the Head of Accounts. As such, performance of the State with respect to the Gender and Child Budget could not be ascertained.
Expenditure Composition Outturn measures the extent to which re-allocations between the main budget categories during execution have contributed to variance in expenditure composition.
Ayear-wise analysis of grants, excesses, and savings provides valuable insights into the efficiency of budget execution and financial management by the State. The same has been depicted in Chart 2.3.
The expenditure composition outturn for the FY 2024-25 is given in Table 2.4.
During 2024-25 significant deviations (above 25 per cent) were noticed in 25 grants in Revenue (Voted) Section. Of these grants, highest deviations pertained to (i) Programme Monitoring Department (Grant No. 77) which had savings of 98.17 per cent and (ii) Food & Supplies Department (Grant No. 21) which had excess expenditure of 70.11 per cent. Scheme-wise, significant savings (₹ 222.71 crore) were noticed under "Assistance for repair/reconstruction of damaged dwelling houses [Under Recovery & Restoration (Out of 30 % of SDRMF)]" under Disaster Management and Civil Defence Department (Grant No. 73) while the scheme which contributed to noticeable excess expenditure (₹ 250.04 crore) was "State Subsidy for purchase of paddy for distribution of Rice in PDS", under the Food & Supplies Department (Grant No. 21).
Similar deviations (above 25 per cent) were also noticed in Capital (Voted) Section in 44 grants. Of these grants, highest deviations pertained to (i) Environment Department (Grant No. -16) which had savings of 100 per cent and (ii) Correctional Administration Department (Grant No. 33) had excess expenditure of 66.31 per cent. The scheme which posted substantial saving (₹ 879.49 crore) under this Section was, "Setting up of different industrial parks" under the Industry, Commerce and Enterprises Department (Grant No. 75) while considerable excess (₹ 1,039.61 crore) was noticed in "Piped Water Supply Schemes (NRDWP) (Jal Jeevan Mission) (State Share)" under the Public Health Engineering Department (Grant No. 45).
Deviations (above 25 per cent) were noticed in Capital (Charged) Section in nine grants. Of these grants, percentage-wise highest deviation pertained to the Governor's Secretariat (Grant No. -02) which had savings of 100 per cent.
Audit scrutiny also revealed persistent deviations (above 25 per cent) in 15 grants under Revenue (Voted) Section for the years 2022-23 to 2024-25. Similar persistent deviations were noticed in 28 grants under Capital (Voted) Section. The details of persistent deviations under different grants during the years 2022-23 to 2024-25 is given in Table 2.5.
The above points to an imprecise budgetary process being followed in the State, that has persisted over the years.
Appropriation Accounts are accounts of the expenditure of the Government for each financial year, compared with the amounts of grants voted and appropriations charged for different purposes as specified in the schedules appended to the Appropriation Act passed under Article 204 of the Constitution of India. These Accounts depict actual expenditure as against the original budget provision, supplementary grants, surrenders and reappropriations distinctly in gross basis.
Audit of appropriations by the CAG seeks to ascertain whether the expenditure incurred under various grants is actually in accordance with the authorisation given under the Appropriation Act and that the expenditure required to be charged under the provisions of the Constitution (Article 202) is so charged. It also ascertains whether the expenditure incurred is in conformity with relevant laws, rules, regulations and instructions.
No money shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund of the State except under appropriation made by law passed in accordance with the provisions of Article 204 of the Constitution. Paragraph 14 of Chapter V of the West Bengal Budget Manual provides that expenditure for which no provision has been made in the Budget estimates should not be incurred except after obtaining additional funds by reappropriation, supplementary grant or appropriation or an advance from the Contingency Fund of the State. It was, however, observed that an expenditure of ₹ 26,876.61 crore 44 (Appendix 2.1), was incurred in 385 cases under various components of 45 grants during the year 2024-25 without having any provision in the original budget estimates/supplementary demands and without issuing any re-appropriation orders to this effect.
The following are the major schemes, where expenditure (₹ 500 crore and above) had been incurred without budget provision:
Incurring such expenditure without budget provision (original or supplementary) undermines the authority of the Legislature.
As per Article 205 of the Constitution of India, it is mandatory for a State Government to get excesses over grants/appropriations regularised by the State Legislature. Although no time limit for regularisation of expenditure has been prescribed under the Article, the regularisation of excess expenditure is done after the completion of discussion of the Appropriation Accounts by the Public Accounts Committee.
There was an excess disbursement of ₹ 13,486.92 crore over the authorisation made by the State Legislature under seven Grants and one Appropriation during 2024-25, as indicated in Table 2.6.
Major schemes which contributed to excess expenditure under Revenue (Voted) Section during the year 2024-25 were Transfer to the deposit account for subventions from Central Road Fund (₹ 272.75 crore) under Grant No. 25- Public Works Department, Special Grants to WBSEDCL' (₹ 1,500.00 crore) and 'One time settlement of outstanding electricity dues of various Govt Depts.' (₹ 227.29 crore) under Grant No. 43- Power Department and 'Lakshmir Bhandar' (₹ 1,661.92 crore) and 'Establishment of I.C.D.S. Project' (₹ 248.35 crore) respectively under Grant No. 74- Women & Child Development and Social Welfare Department.
Excess expenditure under Capital (Voted) Section was attributable to schemes like Piped Water Supply Schemes for Rural Areas under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) (State Share) (₹ 1,039.61 crore) under Grant No. 45- Public Health Engineering Department.
Adetailed audit scrutiny of the Food & Supplies Department (Grant No. 21) revealed that against the budgetary allocation of ₹ 10,296 crore, the actual expenditure during 2024-25 was ₹ 17,329 crore, leading to excess of ₹ 7,033 crore (68.30 per cent). Details of budgetary provisions, actual expenditure, and savings/excess in this grant, during 2022-23 to 2024-25, are shown in Table 2.7.
Under Revenue section of the grant there were savings of 3.20 per cent in 2022-23 which increased to 39.66 per cent in 2023-24 but in 2024-25 there was excess expenditure of 70.09 per cent attributable mainly to excess expenditure in the following schemes as given in Table 2.8.
However, reasons for such excess expenditure in the above schemes were not explained by the concerned Departments (September 2025).
Excess disbursements pertaining to previous years pending regularization from the State Legislature are shown in Table 2.9 below.
To strengthen the legislative oversight over the expenditure from Consolidated Fund of the State, excess expenditures need to be regularized at the earliest and measures to contain recurrence of such excess needs to be taken by the State Government.
The PAC, based on explanatory notes and after due discussion with departmental heads, had recommended (December 2019 and February 2021) regularisation of excess expenditure, under both voted grants and charged appropriations for the financial years 2009-14. However, the Government was yet to regularize the excess expenditure (September 2025).
Thus, expenditure of ₹ 70,750.54 crore 45 remained un-regularised indicating violation of the Article 205(1) (b) of the Constitution. The above instances also indicate inadequate financial management on the part of the controlling officers.
Audit scrutiny revealed that in six cases under five grants, there was persistent excess expenditure of more than ₹ 10 crore in each case during the last five years as detailed in Table 2.10.
On detailed scrutiny of Grant No.21- Food & Supply and Grant No.38-Minority Affairs & Madrasah Education, persistent excess expenditure was observed during 2023-24 to 2024-25 in the following cases.
These persistent excesses pointed to deficiencies in budgeting over the years as in three out of the above four cases, departments failed to anticipate expenditure even at the stage of seeking supplementary grants and incurred expenditure without any budgetary provision.
Article 205 of the Constitution prescribes the requirement of a Supplementary or Additional Grant or Appropriation to cater to requirements in excess of the original provisions.
However, reasons for final saving in the above schemes have not been explained by the GoWB (September 2025).
However, reasons for overall savings in the above schemes have not been explained by the GoWB (September 2025).
Similar findings were also noticed by Audit on detailed review of Grant No.21- Food & Supplies. During 2022-23 to 2024-25, there were seven cases where Supplementary Grants of ₹ 1,347.82 crore proved unnecessary. Details of such cases are given in the Appendix 2.4.
Re-appropriation is transfer of funds within a grant from one unit of appropriation to another unit where additional funds are needed. During 2024-25, re-appropriation orders under 56 grants in 1,529 cases amounting to ₹ 3,014.67 crore were issued out of which reappropriation amounting to ₹ 4.53 crore in six cases under two grants occurred on the last working day of March 2025 (29 March 2025).
During 2024-25, under 30 grants in 57 cases, there was reduction of provision through re-appropriation orders effected by various departments which ultimately proved injudicious as there was excess expenditure under these cases. Of these, details of cases where reduction of provision exceeding ₹ 1 crore was done through re-appropriation and which proved injudicious are given in Appendix 2.5.1. Further, under 24 cases in 14 grants, augmentation of provision exceeding ₹ one crore through re-appropriation orders effected, also proved unnecessary because expenditure was either equal to or did not come up to the level of original/supplementary budget provision (as detailed in Appendix 2.5.2).
Similar findings also emerged during detailed scrutiny of two Grants viz. Grant No. 21- Food & Supply (F&S) and Grant No. 38- Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education (MAME) by Audit. In these grants there were five cases (four in Grant No.21 and one in Grant No.38) where enhancement of provision through re-appropriations proved unnecessary as the expenditure did not come up to the original/supplementary provision. There was also one case (in Grant No.38) where reduction through re-appropriation was injudicious as reduction of provision led to excess expenditure. Details of such cases are given in Appendix 2.6.
Budget proposals should strive to optimise all foreseeable expenditure to appropriate spending levels to balance the quality of expenditure and reduce underutilization of budgeted funds. Timely surrenders by the spending units are an important mechanism for optimal reallocation within the approved budget.
The analysis of grants and appropriations showed that in 27 cases (under 19 grants) during the year 2024-25, the savings (excluding surrenders) exceeded ₹ 100 crore in each case (Appendix 2.7). It was further noticed that in three grants no expenditure vis-à-vis total grant amounting to ₹ 12.29 crore as given in Table 2.12 was incurred during the year 2024-25.
Reasons for non-utilisation of the entire budget provision in the above cases were not communicated (September 2025).
Further, it was also observed that in 49 cases under 33 grants there was persistent savings exceeding ₹ 100 crore in each case (Appendix 2.8) during 2022-23 to 2024-25.
Details of grants grouped by the percentage of utilisation along with total savings during 2024-25 has been shown in Appendix 2.9 and Chart 2.4.
It was noticed that savings under 40 Grants and 16 Appropriations amounting to ₹ 45,072.68 crore (Appendix 2.10) were not surrendered at all.
Analysis revealed that only 2.77 per cent of the savings were surrendered (Chart 2.5). Out of surrendered amount of ₹ 2,326.98 crore, ₹ 11.76 crore (0.51 per cent) was surrendered on the last working day of March 2025.
Details of savings (exceeding ₹ 10 crore in each case) surrendered on the last day of March 2025 is given in Appendix 2.11.
While reviewing Grant No. 21 and 38 in detail, Audit noted that there were persistent savings in 16 Schemes (four in Grant No. 21 & 12 in Grant No. 38, each having savings of ₹ 10 crore and above) during 2022-23 to 2024-25 (Appendix 2.12). In case of Grant No. 21, it was seen that during these three years, at least three 50 schemes had the same budgets each year and had incurred savings affecting capital works and other schemes. These savings in previous years did not deter the department in rationalising the budget in the subsequent years pointing to poor budgeting process.
Apart from this, there were also 13 schemes in these two Grants in 2024-25 where no expenditure was incurred despite having a total budget provision of ₹ 57.29 crore (Appendix 2.13).
The Food and Supplies Department (Grant No. 21) attributed (September 2025) such savings to slow progress of capital works owing to unavoidable reasons, non-execution of schemes, retirement, promotions, non-submission of vouchers in time, non-receipt of budget from different offices, etc.
The reply further affirms the deficiencies of budgeting process as budgets were prepared without considering requirements of different offices and foreseeable events like promotions and retirement. Further, the Department needs to review & address the bottlenecks in timely implementation of capital works.
The Minority Affairs & Madrasah Education Department (Grant No. 38) attributed savings to non-release of central share despite budgeting for both central and state share in case of Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram and non-approval of projects by RIDF despite being budgeted.
Besides the above, test-check of nine DDOs (eight 51 under Grant No. 38 and one 52 under Grant No. 21) for the period from FY 2022-23 to 2024-25 revealed that lapsed allotments contributed to savings against the overall budgetary provisions. In respect of ten schemes under the Food & Supplies Department and seven schemes under the Minority Affairs & Madrasah Education Department, out of the allotment of ₹ 6,542.04 crore and ₹ 39.52 crore, allotments aggregating ₹ 757.44 crore and ₹ 8.15 crore, had lapsed respectively. The details of the schemes are given in Appendix 2.14.
In reply, DDOs pertaining to Grant No. 38 stated that the allotment could not be fully utilised due to various reasons like local problems, land dispute, inadequate/erroneous beneficiary list, etc.
No reply in this regard has been received from the Director of Finance, in respect of Grant No. 21- Food & Supplies Department (November 2025).
It was also found that despite the stipulation in the West Bengal Budget Manual to surrender funds to the Finance Department before 21 February of each year, surrender proposals were sent with delays of 30 days during 2024-25 in case of Grant No. 21, while the delay ranged from seven to 34 days during 2022-23 to 2024-25 in case of Grant No.- 38. This restricted the Finance Department's ability to reappropriate funds effectively.
In reply, MAME Department (Grant No. 38) expressed (September 2025) its inability to determine the exact amount to be surrendered before 21 February since in many cases pending bills came to the Department in the month of February or sometimes in March. While the constraint of the department is appreciated, an assessment of pending bills before the stipulated timeline would facilitate accurate estimation of amount to be surrendered.
As per rule 30 of Government Accounting Rules, 1990, expenditure that results in the creation of concrete, material, and permanent assets should be classified as capital expenditure.
During the financial year 2024-25, the State Government had booked ₹ 21,622 crore as Capital Expenditure. Audit test checked Sanction Orders and expenditure vouchers and noticed that ₹ 1,031.84 crore of expenditure of Revenue nature had been booked under Capital Expenditure. Out of this amount, ₹ 74.50 crore 53 was expenditure towards, maintenance, materials & supplies/stores & equipment, P.O.L. and minor works/maintenance. As per Rule 31 (2) (b) of the Government Accounting Rules, 1990, the Revenue Account should bear all charges relating to such expenditure. The remaining amount of ₹ 957.34 crore had been transferred for creation of assets by entities other than the Government of West Bengal. In accordance with Note below Rule 30(1) of GAR 1990, this amount was to be classified as Revenue Expenditure, instead of Capital Expenditure. The details of Misclassification between Revenue Expenditure and Capital Expenditure during the year 2024-25 is given in Appendix 2.15.
This misclassification led to overstatement of Capital Expenditure with concomitant understatement of Revenue Expenditure by ₹ 1,031.84 crore and consequent understatement of Revenue Deficit. The resulting Capital Expenditure, after Audit, for FY 2024-25, was ₹ 20,594.56 crore 54. The misclassification also impinged on accurate financial reporting.
Correct Classification of expenditure as per List of Major and Minor Heads is critical for Government Accounting as misclassifications can convey inacurate information.
Audit noted that during 2024-25, expenditure of ₹ 7,519.82 crore has been classified inappropriately to incorrect Revenue/Capital Expenditure heads of accounts, affecting the true status of expenditure of the respective Revenue/Capital Expenditure heads. Some major functions which were over/under-stated by such misclassification during the year 2024-25 are indicated in Table 2.13 below:
Rule 389A (Section - XVI) of the West Bengal Financial Rules provides that rush of expenditure particularly in the closing months of the financial year is a breach of financial propriety and should be avoided. Despite this, during the FY 2024-25 Audit noted that around 30 per cent expenditure was incurred in the last quarter of the year with nearly 14 per cent being in the month of March (Table 2.14).
Trend of total Monthly expenditure during financial year 2024-25 is shown in Chart 2.6.
The monthly expenditure trend depicted in the chart indicates a pronounced skewness towards the last quarter of the financial year, particularly in March.
During 2024-25 under 289 sub-heads, in 42 grants, the entire expenditure (₹ 3,855.82 crore) was incurred in the month of March 2025. Out of this, in six grants, under 12 sub-heads (₹ 100 crore and above), 100 per cent expenditure was incurred in the month of March 2025 (Table 2.15).
The trend of rush expenditure was also evident in the test-checked Grants and the test-checked DDOs under these Grants with share of expenditure in the last quarter being 46 and 52 per cent in Grant Nos. 21- Food and Supplies and 38- Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education respectively. In test-checked DDOs, the expenditure in the last quarter ranged between 15 to 100 per cent of the expenditure during the years 2023-24 and 2024-25. The details of expenditure made by six test-checked DDOs (five under Grant No. 38 and one under Grant No. 21) in last quarter during the years 2023-24 and 2024-25 are given in Appendix 2.16.
Thus, there was scope to spread the expenditure evenly in case of some of the schemes.
Ministry of Finance, Government of India, mandated (March 2021) release of funds under each Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) through a Single Nodal Agency (SNA) for each CSS, and monitoring their utilisation. Each SNA must have a dedicated bank account in an authorised Scheduled Commercial Bank. The State Government is required to transfer the Central Share received, to the concerned SNA's account, along with the corresponding State share within 30 days of receipt of the Central share. For delay beyond 30 days in transfer of Central share to the SNA account, interest at the rate of seven per cent has to be paid by the State Government. As per the PFMS portal, the State Government received ₹5,889.49 crore being Central share during the year in its Treasury account. The State Government transferred Central share of ₹5,604.85 crore and State share of ₹12,447.11 crore to the SNAs during 2024-25. As per PFMS portal, ₹8,296.51 crore were lying unspent in the bank accounts of SNAs as on 31 March 2025.
Audit analysis revealed that during the FY 2024-25, in respect of 17 schemes under eight Departments, there were delays beyond 30 days in transferring of Central Share to the SNA Account. As a result, interest of ₹ 4.97 crore was accrued, which was yet to be released by the State Government.
Scrutiny of transactions through the SNA Account of Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK) in Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education revealed the following:
In November 2025, attributing the delay in remittance to procedural change, Department stated that interest accrued upto 31 March 2025 had already been remitted (after the close of the financial year).
The department may, however, strive to remit the interest into CFs in a time-bound manner for accurate depiction of receipts in the Government Accounts.
PFMS Division of the Department of Expenditure under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India proposed (July 2023 55) SNA-SPARSH or "Just-in-Time" (JIT) release of CSS funds through e-Kuber platform of the Reserve Bank of India. Unlike SNA procedure where balances remained in the Single Nodal Agencies' bank account outside the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI) or Consolidated Fund of the State (CFS) with the accounts capturing only the transfer and not the actual expenditure, under SNA-SPARSH, funds are transferred only when an actual payment is due. This prevents large sums of money from sitting idle in various Single Nodal Agencies' Bank Accounts. Accordingly, Government of West Bengal initiated the process for shifting to the new mode in January 2025. The funds lying in the SNA Accounts were to be refunded before on-boarding to JIT.
Audit scrutiny revealed that only 14 CSSs started functioning through JIT-SPARSH instead of the existing 67 SNAs in the State till March 2025. Again, 11 out of 14 CSSs, an amount of ₹ 93.89 crore was lying under the concerned SNA accounts till 31 March 2025.
During test-check of SNA/SNA-SPARSH in seven CSSs under three Departments 56, it was seen that all seven CSS schemes were onboarded to SNA SPARSH between August 2024 and September 2025. Audit observed the following:
Pursuant to para 3(v) of GoI's Order (July 2023), upon onboarding of a scheme onto SNA-SPARSH platform, the State Government was to close all SNA accounts pertaining to the scheme and return the Central and State shares of unspent balances lying in the SNA accounts to the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI) and Consolidated Fund of the State (CFS).
Though these seven schemes started operating through SNA SPARSH between August 2024 and September 2025, five (Agriculture Department: four; Food and Supplies Department: one) accounts were not closed and a balance of ₹ 2.70 crore (Central Share: ₹ 1.62 crore and State share: ₹ 1.08 crore) was still there in these accounts which was yet to be transferred to CFI and CFS as of March 2025.
In reply, Food and Supplies Department stated (September 2025) that the account pertaining to 'Intra State Movement and handling of foodgrains including FPS dealers' could not be closed as necessary approval for transferring interest (₹ 51,695) to CFI/CFS was awaited.
Pursuant to para 3(vi) of GoI's Order (July 2023), the use of SNA platform to release funds was to be stopped immediately after onboarding of the CSS onto SNA-SPARSH platform. Audit noticed that in respect of the four CSSs with Agriculture Department, there were simultaneous expenditure of ₹ 215.17 crore and ₹ 6.57 crore from the SNA-SPARSH platform and SNA platform respectively between 12 February 2025 and 29 March 2025.
The Contingency Fund of Government of West Bengal was established under the West Bengal Contingency Fund Act, 1950, and the State Government made the West Bengal Contingency Fund Rules, 1955 for regulating all matters connected with or ancillary to the custody of payment of monies into and the withdrawal of monies from the Contingency Fund of the State of West Bengal for meeting unforeseen expenditure. The fund is recouped when the State Legislature authorises the additional expenditure. Since financial year 2022-23, the corpus of the Fund is ₹ 200 crore.
Advances from the Contingency Fund are to be made only for meeting expenditure of an unforeseen and emergent character, postponement of which, till its authorisation by the Legislature, would be undesirable. During FY 2024-25, an amount of ₹ 26.95 crore was withdrawn as advance by 11 Departments from the Contingency Fund in respect of 21 schemes/programmes involving 16 Major Heads (Appendix 2.17) of which ₹ 4.71 crore remained unrecouped. Major Head wise details of the expenditure incurred, are given in Table 2.16.
At the end of FY 2024-25, an amount of ₹ 5.57 crore remained unrecouped, out of which, ₹ 0.86 crore 57 pertained to advances remaining unrecouped at the end of the previous year. Non-recoupment of funds during the financial year understates the expenditure from the Consolidated Fund. Further, it violates the provisions of West Bengal Contingency Fund Act, 1950.