MGNREGA: Over Rs 68,000 cr released in current financial year

New Delhi, Dec 5 (PTI) The Centre has released Rs 68,393.67 crore to states and Union Territories so far under the flagship rural employment scheme MGNREGA, Minister of State for Rural Development Kamlesh Paswan said on Friday.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said Rs 57,853.62 crore has been released for the wage component by November 26 and Rs 10,540.05 crore for the material and admin components.

The MGNREGA budget for the financial year 2025-26 was Rs 86,000 crore.

The MoS also informed the House that pending liabilities for wage, material and admin components under the scheme by November 26 were Rs 10,127.58 crore. This includes Rs 1,687.27 crore under the wage component, Rs 8,008.48 crore for the material component and Rs 431.83 crore for the admin component.

Among states, Andhra Pradesh has a pending wage liability of Rs 381.02 crore, material liability of Rs 530.45 crore and Rs 27.51 crore under the admin component. Besides, Rs 248.42 crore is pending under the wage component for Kerala, Rs 91 crore for Mizoram, Rs 64.14 crore for Madhya Pradesh and Rs 46.98 crore for Gujarat.

Under the material component, the Centre owes Rs 1,007.58 crore to Uttar Pradesh, Rs 880 crore to Rajasthan, Rs 655.03 crore to Madhya Pradesh, while Rs 668.80 crore is pending for Maharashtra, the reply showed.

The reply did not mention any pending liabilities for West Bengal for the current financial year.

Release of funds to West Bengal under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was stopped with effect from March 09, 2022 by invoking the provisions of Section 27 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) owing to continued non-compliance with the directives of the central government by the state.

Paswan also said MGNREGS is a demand-driven wage employment scheme and fund release is a continuous process.

"Under the scheme, wage payments are directly credited by the Central Government to the account of beneficiaries through the Direct Benefit Transfer protocol. Sanctions for wage payments are issued daily by the Ministry through the Public Finance Management System (PFMS) based on fund transfer orders received from the States after due procedures," he said.

" At the beginning of each financial year, admissible pending liabilities of the previous year, if any, are duly reimbursed by the Government of India. Accordingly, all pending wage liabilities up to FY 2024-25 (Except that of West Bengal) have already been cleared," he said.

Paswan added that with regard to material and admin components, states and UTs are required to furnish fund release proposals to the government of India.

"The Central Government releases funds periodically in two tranches with each tranche consisting of one or more instalments, keeping in view the 'agreed to' Labour Budget, demand for works, opening balance, pace of utilization of funds, pending liabilities, overall performance and subject to submission of relevant documents," he said. PTI AO KSS KSS