As of 2023-24, the Central Government has failed to transfer ₹3.69 lakh crore worth of cess collections to the relevant funds for which the cess was implemented, the Comptroller and Auditor General has found. A cess is a levy over and above a tax and has to be used for a particular purpose. 

These short allocations date back to cesses imposed in 1974 and thus show lapses across governments. 

In its report on the accounts of the Union Government for 2023-24 tabled in Parliament on Tuesday (August 12, 2025), the CAG found such shortfalls in transfers relating to funds created for investor education and protection, monetisation of national highways, development of the oil industry, and the development of health and education in the country.

“The aggregate impact of test checked funds till 31 March 2024 was short transfer of ₹3,69,307 crore to the designated reserve fund in the Public Accounts,” the CAG said in its report.

The single-largest source of this shortfall in transfers was to do with the Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB). The Oil Industry (Development) Act, 1974 had provided for the setting up of the OIDB for the development of the oil industry. For that purpose, a cess was imposed on crude oil and natural gas. 

“We found that as per the Annual Report 2023-24 of OIDB, since FY 1974-75 to FY 2023-24, total cess on crude oil collected by the Government was ₹2,94,850.56 crore (including ₹18,845.98 crore during FY 2023-24),” the CAG report noted. “It is also significant that since FY 1974-75 to FY 1991-92, only ₹902.40 crore has been transferred to the OIDB and thereafter no funds have been transferred to the OIDB, out of the cess collected each year.”

In other words, the government collected ₹2.9 lakh crore as cess for the development of the oil industry since 1974-75, but had transferred only ₹902 crore or 0.3% to the relevant fund as of 2023-24.

In its reply to the CAG, the Ministry of Finance said that the government had decided to constitute an ‘Oil Industry Development Fund’ for the development of the oil sector, which was operationalised from 2024-25. 

An analysis by The Hindu of the government’s budget documents shows it has transferred ₹17,730 crore in 2024-25 and has budgeted a transfer of ₹19,376 crore in 2025-26 to the fund. 

The other large cess that has been collected, but not adequately transferred to the relevant fund is the Health and Education Cess. 

The Government had imposed an Education Cess at 2% on all taxes collected by the Centre with effect from April 1, 2004. The government in 2007 levied an additional Secondary and Higher Education cess of 1% on income tax and surcharge. From April 1, 2018, the central government replaced these two cesses with a single 4% Health and Education Cess. 

The proceeds from these cesses were to be transferred to the Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh (PSK) introduced in November 2005, the Madhyamik and Uchchatar Shiksha Kosh (MUSK) established in 2017, and the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Nidhi (PMSSN), set up in 2021. 

The analysis by the CAG found that the Centre did not transfer a total of ₹37,537 crore that it collected as cess from 2018-19 to 2023-24 to the relevant education and health funds.

There does seem to be a discrepancy here, the CAG acknowledged. In its reply, the Finance Ministry said that between 2018-19 and 2023-24, it transferred ₹3.66 lakh crore to the designated funds, which was in excess of what it had collected from the relevant cesses during that time. 

However, the CAG pointed out that the Union Government Finance Accounts showed that the transfer to these funds during this period was ₹2.65 lakh crore. 

“This needs to be reconciled by the Ministry,” it added.

The other funds where the transfer was less than the cess collected were the Investor Education and Protection Fund (₹2,505.5 crore shortfall) and the Monetisation of National Highways Fund (₹5,968.1 crore shortfall).

Published – August 12, 2025 05:34 pm IST

New Delhi:

The BJP today escalated its attack on AAP following findings from a leaked Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report regarding the city’s controversial excise policy. Questioning the authenticity of the report, AAP leader Sanjay Singh asked whether the alleged findings were made at the BJP office. 

The report, which allegedly outlines major lapses and violations under the leadership of former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, has triggered a fresh row ahead of the February 5 Delhi Assembly elections. 

The CAG report has not been officially released. 

The purported CAG report, parts of which have reached the public domain, alleges that the Delhi government’s Excise Policy caused a loss of over Rs 2,026 crore to the state including Rs 890 crore due to the failure to re-tender surrendered retail liquor licenses. An additional loss of Rs 941 crore allegedly stemmed from exemptions granted to zonal licensees. 

Key approvals from the Lieutenant Governor (LG), the Cabinet, and the Assembly were allegedly bypassed. The report further claims that the Group of Ministers (GoM) led by Manish Sisodia ignored recommendations from an expert panel.

The BJP has seized on the alleged findings, accusing the AAP government of gross corruption and mismanagement. 

“If their (AAP) policies were so good then why were they taken aback? Today AAP has no answer to Delhi’s broken roads, dirty water in homes, rising electricity bills, mountains of garbage and pollution. Today the people of Delhi want to be free from ‘AAP-da’,” BJP leader Anurag Thakur said. 

AAP MP Sanjay Singh questioned the authenticity of the purported report.

“Where is the CAG report? Do you have a copy? Is it made at the BJP office? The BJP is scared. They have become mentally unstable. We cannot respond to everything. On one hand, they are saying the CAG report has not been tabled, but on the other, they say it has been released. What do they mean?” Mr Singh asked. 

The Congress has also joined the attack. Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav criticised the delay in tabling the CAG report in the Assembly, alleging that this indicated a deal between the BJP and AAP to suppress the report. Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit called the policy a “clear scam” and accused the Kejriwal government of draining government funds. 

New Delhi:

A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on the expenses made in renovating the Delhi Chief Minister’s residence has given the BJP fresh ammo to attack the ruling AAP and its leader Arvind Kejriwal as the national capital preps for the Assembly polls.

The CAG probe, according to news reports, found that the preliminary estimate for the renovation was Rs 7.91 crore. This went up to 8.62 crore when work was awarded in 2020. But by the time the Public Works Department completed the job in 2022, the cost had jumped to Rs 33.66 crore.

According to a report in The Indian Express, former CAG Girish Chandra Murmu signed off on this report just a week before he left office in November.

Addressing the media today, Delhi BJP chief Virendraa Sachdeva said the sum of Rs 33.66 crore was “just a figure” and the actual renovation cost was much higher.

“If we want to estimate the actual cost of this bungalow, it will require examining the accounts of various departments and adding the inventory prepared by PWD on October 11, 2024. We will then find that Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘Sheesh Mahal’ was illegally constructed and decorated at a cost of approximately Rs 75 to 80 crore,” he said.

The BJP has used the ‘Sheesh Mahal’ expression to refer to the renovated Chief Minister’s bungalow. The Opposition party has accused AAP and Mr Kejriwal of large-scale corruption in the renovation exercise, a charge AAP has trashed.

The CAG report has flagged “doubtful” selection of consultants, frequent revision of estimates and going beyond approvals to include items of higher specifications. The report also raised questions on the PWD’s tender process to identify contractors for the project.

“The first clear fact from the CAG report about the “Sheesh Mahal” is that under the Arvind Kejriwal government, the PWD did not act as a government agency but as a personal institution for Chief Minister Kejriwal,” the Delhi BJP chief said.

“It is important to note that the way PWD officials broke every rule and law to build this ‘Sheesh Mahal’ makes it clear that this is a case of corruption with a “give and take” situation – the Chief Minister and the concerned ministers must have also turned a blind eye to the many corrupt activities of the officials,” Mr Sachdeva added.

The BJP also said PWD declared it an emergency project and issued the work order on September 1, 2020. “This was during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were struggling and jobs were suspended,” the BJP said, questioning the urgency.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the CAG report and said, “You will be shocked to know that when Delhi residents were fighting Covid, wandering in search of oxygen and medicines, their (AAP) focus was on the building Sheesh Mahal.”

Hitting back at the Prime Minister, Mr Kejriwal said the man who lives in a house worth Rs 2,700 crore, travels on an Rs 8,400 crore plane and wears a Rs 10 lakh suit must not talk about Sheesh Mahal. Mr Kejriwal has vacated the bungalow after he quit the Chief Minister’s post, saying that he will return to the top job only after the “people’s verdict” in the Assembly election due in February.

New Delhi:

Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has written to Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, asking that a special sitting of Delhi Assembly be convened for immediately laying the pending 14 reports of the country’s top auditor Comptroller and Auditor General on the Table of the House. The Delhi government, which submitted some of the CAG reports ahead of a court hearing on the matter, is yet to declare any dates for the assembly session when the reports can be tabled. 

Eleven of the 14 reports pertain to the period when Arvind Kejriwal was the Chief Minister of Delhi and are about Delhi Transport Corporation, public health and mohalla clinics, liquor duty, pollution, finance and various state undertakings. The LG’s directions are in line with the Section 48 of GNCTD Act, 1991. 

The CAG Reports are touchstone of transparency in governance. Placing them before the Legislature expeditiously is a constitutional mandate for the Government, the LG wrote to the Chief Minister.  

By not laying the CAG Reports promptly before the Legislative Assembly, the Government has failed to discharge its constitutional obligation, he added.

The Delhi government had sent the reports to the Raj Bhavan last week. Reports, quoting un-named officials, said one of the CAG reports was pending for 497 days. 

The BJP, which had filed a case in the High Court, had claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party government had sent the reports ahead of a hearing to forestall action from the court. 

“It took the fear of an adverse order by the Delhi High Court for the AAP government to hurriedly submit the long-pending CAG Reports to the LG to seek his permission, for making it possible for the reports to be made public, by placing them in the Assembly,” the office of the Lieutenant Governor said in a note.

“The government in a move to save face hurriedly sent 12 reports on December 11 at 3:30 PM just a day before the hearing and later two remaining reports on at 7.50 PM on December 12 to the LG Secretariat, after the hearing had concluded,” the note read.

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu BJP leader K Annamalai on Sunday said that Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is the abode of corruption adding that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has forgotten that accusing other parties of corruption will make the public laugh. 

Reacting to the remarks made by CM Stalin on Sunday that CAG in its reports has exposed multiple corruption made by BJP, K Annamalai said, “DMK is the abode of corruption. Chief Minister Stalin has blatantly lied that seven types of corruption in the central government have been exposed by the CAG report. The question arises whether the Chief Minister has ever read the CAG report before.”

“In the CAG report, apart from the fact that the expenditure on the construction of the highway has increased, Chief Minister Stalin should explain where the words such as corruption, malpractice, fraud or allotment of contract to certain persons for the Dwarka Expressway as mentioned by the Chief Minister,” he added. 

K Annamalai further stated that CAG in its report has mentioned that the reason for the increase in the cost of constructing the Dwarka Expressway is due to the change in the design plans of the project.

“CAG report itself states that out of the 14-lane highway, 8 lanes have been converted into flyovers and 6 lanes have been converted into expressways,” he said. 

He further claimed that DMK ministers are involved in the smuggling of Tamil Nadu’s mineral resources and sending them to Kerala.

“What action has the Chief Minister taken so far against those who are stealing mineral resources without helping the development work of the state?” he said. 

On MK Stalin’s allegations that there is corruption in the Ayushman Bharat scheme, K Annamalai said, “Even saying malpractice in Ayushman Bharat scheme is like spitting at the sky. He has read the slip without even knowing that if the accounts of many people are linked with the same number, the state government is also responsible for correcting it.”

“Central Government has ensured a new technology to prevent the recurrence of technical errors like linking of multiple accounts with the same number. However, it is the responsibility of the state governments to correct the fake accounts that have already been linked. After failing to do that, Chief Minister Stalin has spoken without understanding that the central government is corrupt,” he added. 

He further stated that the people of the country will not forget the CAG report on the 2G scam and the role of a DMK in it. 

“The CAG report on the 2G scam had all the words corruption, malpractice, fraud and loss to the government. DMK is the symbol of corruption. People will never accept the vain blaming of the Narendra Modi-led central government,” he said. 

Earlier Union Health Ministry on August 17 said that the recommendations made by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its performance audit report on the Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana (AB-PMJAY) were being examined. 

CAG tabled a performance audit report in the Lok Sabha on August 7 on the operationalisation of the AB-PMJAY scheme in hospitals.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)