Many Budget plans fail to take off: Panel

New Delhi: While the government earns brownie point by announcing a slew of schemes in the Union Budget, many of these fail to take off in a significant way.  This was revealed in a report by Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.

“The committee found that the announcements made in Budget speech no doubt make the public happy and also hopeful for a better future. However, these announcements, in certain cases, do not result in matching allocations and purposeful utilisation,” said the  committee in a report submitted in the Parliament.

The committee said that Budget 2014-15 announced “Rs 10,000-crore fund allocation to act as a catalyst to attract private capital by way of providing equity, quasi-equity... soft loans and other risk capital for start-up companies”.

“However, there was no commensurate allocation in 2014-15 under the relevant Head of Account — Investment (India Aspiration Fund). In  January, 2016, '500 crore was allocated, which remained un-utilised till March 31, 2016,” said the report.

It said that “Rs 1,800 crore was allocated for Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana Scheme. Out of which, only Rs 1,223 has been released as on January 20, 2016. Out of Rs 300 crore allocated for Paramparagat Krishi Yojana, only Rs 197 crore has been released till January 12, 2016.”

It said that government  had decided to “provide another Rs 1,000 crore to the Nirbhaya Fund” (as per Budget 2015-16). “However, by January 2016, Rs 10.71 crore and Rs 13.92 crore have been utilised for funding ‘One Stop Centre’ and ‘Women Helpline’ towards women safety.”