Parliamentary Committee Slams 'Amateur Planning' In NITI Aayog Budget

Thu, 20 March 2025

09:30

The parliamentary standing committee on finance criticised the NITI Aayog after it found discrepancies in its allocations and spending over the past three financial years, and slammed India's official policy think-tank for 'amateur planning'.

The panel, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, said it its report that a scrutiny of estimates, allocations and use of Budget grants finds 'a trend of amateur planning where the Ministry of Planning [NITI Aayog] has not been able to apply adequate foresight in planning and projecting their probable expenditures with due accuracy.'

The parliamentary committee said it feels there is a dire need of a more realistic assessment of envisaged targets and expenditures thereon. According to the parliamentary panel's report, NITI Aayog has sought Rs 1,006.60 crore as Budget Estimates (BE) for financial year (FY) 2026 compared to Rs 837.26 crore for FY25, an increase of 16.77 per cent.

The parliamentary panel took issue because: 'The Actuals for FY23 were to the tune of Rs 849.10 crore against a BE of Rs 321.42 crore. Likewise, the Actuals for FY24 were pegged at Rs 290.82 crore, against a BE of Rs 824.39 crore.' 'The scrutiny further reveals that the Actuals for FY25 are to the tune of Rs 197.49 crore in the first three quarters, which is 23.58 per cent of the BE,' the committee said.

The panel has asked the think tank to avoid spillovers and parking of large funds under unnecessary heads or sub-heads. It recommended that the NITI Aayog be more fiscally prudent in allocating and utilising the available resources in future and 'be more precise and accurate in assessment of their projected expenditure and targets.'

The parliamentary panel also cautioned the policy think tank against red tape and said pending approvals were harming key initiatives such as the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM). While the panel lauded the programme so far, it said, 'The recasting/approval process of AIM 2.0 continued for almost two years, which somehow jeopardised and halted the pace of ongoing initiatives under AIM like Atal Incubation Centre (AIC), Atal Community Innovation Centre (ACIC) and Atal New India Challenges (ANIC), and thereby resulted in underachievement of projected targets under these programmes.'

The committee further urged NITI Aayog to reform standard operating procedures for securing approvals for the continuation of a scheme, as the intervening breaks occurring due to pending approvals, puts a spanner in the wheel and mars overall progress.

-- Dhruvaksh Saha/Business Standard

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