Policy Briefs & Reports

Budget Brief 2015-16: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

Avani Kapur
Anindita Adhikaari

Centre for Policy Research

February 28, 2015

In FY 2015-16, 34,699 crore was allocated to MGNREGS, accounting for 47% of the total MoRD budget. An additional 5,000 crore has been committed in 2015-16, based on resource availability.

The timing of fund releases has slowed down considerably in FY 2014-15. In FY 2013-14, 60% of the funds were released by the first quarter of the financial year. However, in FY 2014-15, only 43% had been released in the first quarter.

There has been a steady decline in persondays of employment generated in the last 3 years from 230 persondays in FY 2012-13 to 132 persondays in FY 2014-15 (till February).

In FY 2013-14, several states had spent more than the total funds available with them. Consequently, MGNREGS had an outstanding liability of 5,512 crore at the start of FY 2014-15.

Delays in payment is a serious problem. In FY 2014-15, 72% of all payments were delayed beyond 15 days. 13% of these were delayed by more than 90 days.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) mandates a compensation to be paid to beneficiaries for delayed payments. However, only 6 states have paid any compensation, Maharashtra paid the highest amount at 6.6 crore.

The highest proportion of employment has been generated in the most backward districts of the country through the programme. Summary & analySiS