With just two months remaining in the financial year 2023-24, the Plan expenditure of local self-government institutions in the State stood at 34% as on Friday. The expenditure figures were lower than the corresponding figures during the same period for the past six financial years.
Taking into account the pending bills from various local bodies in the treasury, this figure could go up considerably. For instance, 523 Plan and non-Plan bills amounting to ₹340.5 crore are pending in the Thiruvananthapuram district treasury as on Friday, while bills for smaller amounts are pending in the sub treasuries.
Block panchayats lead the spendings with 39.26% Plan expenditure, followed closely by grama panchayats with 37.23% spending. The urban bodies lag behind with Corporations with a spending of 29.61% and municipalities, 32.18%. Among the Corporations, Thiruvananthapuram leads with 36.71%, having spent ₹75.34 crore out of the year’s Plan allocation of ₹205 crore. According to an official in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, its expenditure has effectively crossed 50%, taking into account the pending bills in the treasury.
Since 2022, the Million Plus Cities Challenge Fund provided by the 15th Finance Commission’s for urban agglomerations are also part of the expenditure figures. Seven cities from the State, along with towns and outgrowths adjacent to them, have been chosen as part of the 15th Finance Commission’s Million Plus Urban Agglomerations. The urban agglomerations have spent only 16.01%, having spent only ₹44.99 crore out of the total allocation of ₹281 crore. The long term nature of some of the projects for agglomerations partly explains the low expenditure.
