Uttarakhand: Many departments proved to be laggards in spending the budget, will have to pay a big price, know the performance of every department

Preparations for the next budget are going on in Uttarakhand these days. But before that, the Finance Department has turned its eyes towards the budget expenditure of this financial year. The Finance Department is closely examining the performance of budget expenditure of all the departments.

So far 52 departments have spent 6217 crores on new development works

A parameter of development in any state is the expenditure budget expenditure made by that state in capital development i.e. infrastructure development, which is a big standard. In Uttarakhand, the Finance Department is constantly emphasizing on the departments regarding budget expenditure in capital development.

Budget expenditure performance of departments

For this financial year, the Uttarakhand government had passed a budget of 89,230 crores in the assembly. The year 2024 is over and if we talk about the latest budget expenditure figures, so far in capital expenditure, 52 departments of the Uttarakhand government have spent only ₹ 6217 crores out of the proposed 15,854 crores, which is about 41.85 percent of the proposed budget. This is almost the same as the situation at this time in the last financial year. This figure is from 1 April 2024 to 7 January 2025.

Huge budget of these departments

If we look at the budget of the Uttarakhand government, there are some important departments of the government which have the biggest responsibility of new construction and development work. In such a situation, if we talk about the departments of the government having heavyweight budget i.e. proposed budget of more than 500 crores, then they are as follows-

Departments with heavyweight budget

• Rural Development Department – Proposed Budget 1632 Crores
• Public Works Department – Proposed Budget 1440 Crores
• Irrigation Department – Proposed Budget 1380 Crores
• Energy Department – Proposed Budget 1281 Crores
• Urban Development – Proposed Budget 774 Crores
• Food Supply Department – Proposed Budget 613 Crores
• Disaster Management Department – Proposed Budget 596 Crores
• Drinking Water Corporation – Proposed Budget 572 Crores

Best Performing Department in Budget Expenditure

By getting maximum budget released from its proposed budget and spending it, it is considered that the work has been completed and the budget has been spent. That is, development work has been done. In such a situation, if we talk about the departments that have the highest budget and are doing the best in terms of budget expenditure, then they are as follows-

Top 5 performers in budget expenditure

• Food and Civil Supplies Department has spent 98.51% of the proposed budget of Rs 613 crore
• Sports Department has spent 92.40% of the proposed budget of Rs 100 crore
• Urban Development Department has spent 64.48% of the proposed budget of Rs 774 crore
• Agriculture Department has spent 64.12% of its proposed budget of Rs 68 crore
• Public Works Department i.e. PWD has spent 62.84% of its proposed budget of Rs 1440 crore

Departments miserly in budget expenditure

In terms of budget expenditure, Disaster Management Department has proved to be the worst. After that, Tourism Department has also been able to spend less budget. Forest and Energy Corporation has also spent less budget. The social welfare department is also a low performer in terms of budget spending.

5 departments lagging behind in budget spending

• The proposed budget of the disaster management department is Rs 596 crore, but only 29% has been spent
• The proposed budget of the tourism department is Rs 259 crore, the department has spent only 30%
• The forest department is also lagging behind in terms of budget spending. Out of the budget of Rs 129 crore, the forest department has spent only 30%
• The proposed budget in the power sector of the state is also Rs 1281 crore, but only 40% has been spent so far
• The social welfare department also has a budget of Rs 158 crore, out of which only 26% has been spent

The upcoming budget of low performing departments will be cut

Finance Secretary Dilip Javalkar said that- ‘These days preparations have been started for the budget of the upcoming financial year. Proposals for the budget are being sought from all the departments, the review of which has also been started now. After the Union Budget is presented in February, it becomes clear to a great extent what kind of help the state is going to get from the Centre. Only after that the state brings its budget.

Finance Minister Premchand Agarwal says that- ‘All the departments are being reviewed regarding budget expenditure in this financial year. It is being seen which department is doing well in its budget expenditure performance. On the other hand, the department which is not spending its capital infrastructure budget well, its upcoming budget will be cut.’