Reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) tabled in the Assembly on Saturday pointed out, among others, that transactions at outlets of the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited (Tasmac) continued to be predominantly cash-based, amid complaints of overcharging.
Lapses in e-procurement system and functioning of the Tamil Nadu Construction Workers Welfare Board (TNCWWB) were flagged too.
The compliance Audit (Revenue) report of the CAG for the year that ended on March 31, 2022 said that cashless transactions should be encouraged, and that Point-of-Sale (PoS) machines had been installed in all Tasmac retail vending shops for the purpose. Of the 5,359 machines installed, only 3,114 were working, and the remaining were inoperative due to technical reasons. Immediate measures were not being taken to restore them, it added.
Besides, by not maintaining these machines, Tasmac had indirectly encouraged cash transactions, it said, adding that most of the complaints received by Tasmac (177 of 238) pertaining to overcharging in its outlets and non-maintenance of these machines had compounded the issue. During the exit meet in April 2023, the State government had replied that measures were being taken to improve cashless trade in retail vending shops, the CAG recalled.
The CAG further said that a perusal of the records in eight out of 43 depots revealed that Tasmac did not pay the differential excise duty amounting to ₹30.5 crore due to revision of rates of Indian Made Foreign liquor, even as the MRP was revised accordingly.
The observation was accepted and a demand had been raised against Tasmac, the report said.
It further pointed out that the procurement and retail vending policy of Tasmac was old and not transparent. Tasmac was being entrusted with sheer monopoly in procuring and vending liquor, and should adopt an equitable purchase policy from all manufactories, without favouring any of them. The CAG noted that the end-to-end computerisation project of Tasmac has already been delayed, and the management should finalise it expeditiously to have an efficient Goods Monitoring System in place. E-tender for transport tendering should be introduced by Tasmac as early as possible to check for cartelisation, it suggested.
The CAG further pointed out that incorrect reference of a document of release among partners of a firm resulted in a loss of revenue of Stamp Duty and Registration Fee worth ₹3.44 crore.
The CAG conducted a subject-specific compliance Audit on the Commercial Taxes Department’s oversight on GST Payments and Return Filing, and found deficiencies with a revenue implication of ₹992.38 crore.
The CAG report on Performance Audit on Implementation of e-procurement system in Tamil Nadu highlighted that in the absence of specific instructions from the State government mandating entities to procure through the Government eProcurement System of the National Informatics Centre (GePNIC) portal, various departments had adopted differing modes of procurement, including purchasing manually.
According to the report, 74% of the entities did not utilise the portal though 15 years have passed since it was started. It further highlighted that though online Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) collection system was enabled in December 2017, the EMD was collected offline from bidders, resulting in delayed refunding of the deposits to unsuccessful bidders.
The Tamil Nadu government in its reply during the exit meeting, had said that the online EMD collection would be made mandatory, and the portal would be modified to refund EMD of the rejected bidders automatically on the 30th day after the Award of Contract.
The report recommended the State government to come up with a comprehensive solution to address the technical and procedural shortcomings and issue orders to all the procuring entities to mandatorily use the eProcurement portal for all procurement activities. It also recommended the government to take steps for the public to easily access non-sensitive information in the portal without any restriction for a truly transparent system.
The CAG report on performance Audit on Welfare of Building and Other Construction Workers said non-preparation of budget during 2017-22 impacted the financial management of TNCWWB and there is no system to estimate the amount of Cess collectable by it. Lack of due diligence had led to non-extending benefits to a large number of beneficiaries during COVID-19 pandemic and a significant number of beneficiaries received assistance more than once, it said.î ˆThe State government has directed TNCWWB to initiate corrective actions recommended by Audit.
