The Central government on Friday clarified that the Union Budget 2023-24 has not lowered the allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme. MGNREGA is a demand-driven scheme and any household demanding employment under it shall be provided at least 100 days of unskilled manual work in a financial year, in accordance with the scheme.
A clarification by the Ministry of Rural Development referred to media reports which expressed concern over the Budget allocation of Rs 60,000 crore for the MGNREGA scheme for the next financial year, which is 18 per cent lower than the Rs 73,000 crore budget estimates of the last financial year, 2022-23.
The reports expressed fear that this may affect the rural job employment scheme MGNREGA to achieve its objective of providing wage employment against the demand from the rural households. “This is far from the truth,” the clarification said.
The scheme being demand-driven, “whenever additional funds are required, the Ministry of Finance is requested to provide the funds. The Government of India is committed to release funds for wage and material payments for proper implementation of the scheme, as per the provisions of the act and guidelines applicable for Central Government as well as State Governments,” the clarification said.
During the current FY 2022-23, a total of 99.81 per cent rural households have been offered wage employment against their demand for work. If an applicant for employment under the Scheme is not provided such employment within 15 days of receipt, he shall be entitled to a daily unemployment allowance.
In the FY 2019-20 budget estimate (BE) was Rs 60,000 crore which got revised to Rs 71,001 crore; for the FY 2020-21 BE was Rs 61,500 crore which increased at revised estimate (RE) to Rs 1,11,500 crore and for the FY 2021-22 the BE of Rs 73,000 crore has been revised to Rs 98,000 crore.
“Therefore, it can be seen that the actual releases to the States have been much higher than that provided for at the BE level. Even during the current financial year 2022-23, the BE has been Rs 73,000 crore, which has been revised to Rs 89,400 crore. From the perusal of the above, it is inferred that the previous release has no bearing on the requirement for funds for next year,” the clarification said.