The Hindu : V.N. Kaul takes over as CAG

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Saturday, Mar 16, 2002

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V.N. Kaul takes over as CAG

The President, K.R. Narayanan, administering the oath of office to the new Comptroller and Auditor-General, Vijayendra N. Kaul, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Friday.— PTI

New Delhi, March 15. Vijayendra N. Kaul, former Petroleum Secretary, was today administered the oath of office as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) by the President, K.R. Narayanan. Mr. Kaul succeeds V.K. Shunglu, who retires today.

The Vice-President, Krishan Kant, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, his Cabinet colleagues Yashwant Sinha, Ram Naik, C.P. Thakur and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and top officials including the Cabinet Secretary, T.R. Prasad, were present on the occasion at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

— PTI

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CAG reports drop in indirect taxes in excise, customs

By Our Special Correspondent

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has highlighted the huge shortfall in indirect taxes mainly in excise and customs duties of about Rs. 8,715 crores as well as Rs. 21,658 crores foregone for export promotion schemes in 2000-01.

In three reports on indirect taxes submitted to Parliament today, the CAG noted that the net receipts of custom duties during 2000-01 amounted to Rs. 47,542 crores which fell short of budget estimates by Rs. 6,030 crores. The customs collections fell short of budget estimates by four to 24 per cent in all the previous four years. The CAG has noted that these are indicative of weakness in budgetary forecasting.

As for excise duties, the CAG has stated that net receipts from central excise duty during 2000-01 were Rs. 68,282 crores against the budget estimates of Rs. 70,967 crores indicating a shortfall of Rs. 2,685 crores. The expenditure incurred for collection of excise duties also increased to Rs. 615.84 crores in 2000-01 as against Rs. 354.74 crores in 1996-97, it said.

The report points out that growth in cost of collection averaged 15.32 per cent during the previous five years whereas revenue growth had averaged around 11.33 per cent. It observed that while the value of production in manufacturing sector went up by 3.32 times in 1990-2001, excise collections were up by only 2.78 times, it said. The proportion of excise receipts in the value of production decreased from 8.94 per cent to 7.5 per cent, it said.

The CAG found that rise in Modvat availed was higher by 6.92 times on account of liberalisation and expansion of scheme.

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