In spite of UDAY, no rise in power company turnaround
The Department of Finance granted refund on account of zero rated exports without obtaining proof of exports.
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This is despite MahaVitaran having received Rs 4,960 crore from the state government under the scheme to repay its high cost debt. It did not receive any other dedicated fund to achieve various operational parameters. (Representational Image) The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its report on Compliance Audit for the year ended March 2021 said that the main objective of the financial and operational turnaround of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) was not achieved in spite of implementing Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme.
This is despite MahaVitaran having received Rs 4,960 crore from the state government under the scheme to repay its high cost debt. It did not receive any other dedicated fund to achieve various operational parameters.
The MSEDCL was left to improve its operational parameters through its own resources or under other Central/State schemes. It had approached (March 2017) the state government for availing guarantee for raising bonds of Rs 1,653 crore in accordance with the government resolution of December 2016, the state government denied standing guarantee for raising the funds.
“’There was no firm commitment from GoM (Government of Maharashtra) departments to expeditiously clear the outstanding dues of MSEDCL. MSEDCL could not achieve its targets of bringing down the aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses to the desired level. On the contrary, AT&C losses of MSEDCL increased from 16.94% in 2018-19 to 20.73% in 2020-21 due to poor collection mainly from agricultural consumers and various State Government departments. Thus, the main objectives of achieving financial and operational turnaround of MahaVitaran were not achieved in spite of implementing the UDAY scheme,” the report said.
“GoM may ensure that all electricity dues of MahaVitaran from departments and local bodies towards public water works and street lights are cleared in a time bound manner. MahaVitaran should complete DT (Direct Connected) metering and feeder segregation expeditiously and reduce the AT&C losses to 15 per cent or less by improving its billing and collection efficiency,” suggested CAG.
GST refunds
Audit of “Goods and Service Tax refunds” revealed that the electronic credit/cash ledgers of the taxpayer were not debited before generation of Application Reference Number of the refund application, resulting in irregular grant of refund. There were cases of delayed issuance of refund order, thereby, creating liability of payment of interest. The grant of provisional refunds in excess of the total due amount were also noticed.
The Department of Finance granted refund on account of zero rated exports without obtaining proof of exports. Department of Finance erred in considering the input tax credit on capital goods, input services and pre-GST invoices for grant of refund wherever applicable. The cases of consideration of incorrect values of components such as Adjusted Total Turnover, Net Input Tax Credit, values of invoices which resulted in excess refunds were noticed, the CAG noted.
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