CAG raps commerce ministry on export schemes

Even the verification unit working directly under the JDGFT, which was required to examine all such payments failed to detect these inadmissible payments, the report said, adding the ministry had asked the concerned firms to refund the amount.

"However, his (JDGFT) reply was silent about why such omissions occurred regularly in his office", the report said. The CAG also rapped the ministry for allowing funds amounting to Rs 1.17 crore held in different foreign currencies at Bank of Baroda in Brussels to idle for years without any transaction, resulting in a loss of interest of Rs 65.52 lakh.

The bank account was being maintained to meet the expenditure on behalf of various government undertakings on trade related matters like exhibitions, fairs and other promotional activities.

The CAG said an amount of Rs 1.10 crore was stated to have been invested in fixed deposit but no records were available on the rate of interest and period for which it had been invested.

"The quantum of interest earned was also not known nor was it credited to government account", the report said. The permanent mission of India in Brussels had referred the issue of dormant account to the ministry three times, in December 1994, April 1997 and May 1997, but did not receive any response, the CAG noted.

In December 1998, the ministry stated that it had decided to withdraw the entire amount lying in different accounts and deposit them in the consolidated fund of India in the light of audit observations.

The CAG also said that the Engineering Export Promotion Council, sponsored by the commerce ministry, had made an inadmissible payment of Rs 13.36 lakh to exporters on account of reimbursement of international price reimbursement scheme.

Under the scheme introduced in 1981, exporters of engineering goods were to be reimbursed the difference between the domestic and international prices of mild steel and pig iron used for export production.

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