₹999 CRORE REVENUE IMPACT IN 7,144 CASES RAISES ACCOUNTABILITY CONCERNS, THE GOVERNMENT MUST FIX RESPONSIBILITY FOR REVENUE LAPSES FLAGGED BY CAG, THE CAG FINDINGS EXPOSE GAPS IN REVENUE ADMINISTRATION, GOVERNMENT MUST ACT:- KUMARI SELJA
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The Sirsa MP, Formar Union Cabinet Minister, General Secretary of All India Congress Committee and CWC member Kumari Selja said the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on Haryana’s revenue management raised serious concerns and demanded that the state government fix responsibility in every case and ensure recovery of revenue lost due to lapses. Kumari Selja said the government should view the CAG findings from the perspective of administrative accountability rather than reducing them to political allegations. She demanded a detailed examination of every case and said wherever rules had been ignored or negligence established, responsibility should be fixed and the loss to the state exchequer recovered.
Referring to the CAG’s 2026 Compliance Audit (Revenue) Report, Kumari Selja said sample scrutiny of records of 143 units relating to sales tax/VAT, stamp duty and registration fees, excise and transport during 2023-24 had revealed 7,144 cases involving short assessment of tax, short collection or loss of revenue amounting to about ₹998.85 crore.
According to the figures cited by her, the report pointed to a revenue impact of ₹415.68 crore in cases under VAT/sales tax and GST relating to works contracts and construction services. Cases concerning stamp duty and registration fees accounted for another ₹85.37 crore, while important cases relating to transport tax and deposits of revenue into the government treasury involved ₹8.17 crore.
Kumari Selja said the findings were particularly concerning because ordinary citizens and small traders were required to deposit taxes on time, and the government machinery should be held to an equally high standard of discipline, transparency and accountability. “Government revenue is public money and negligence at any level in its collection cannot simply be dismissed as an ordinary administrative lapse,” she said.The Congress leader asked the state government to clarify how much money had been recovered so far in the cases identified by the CAG, how many cases had resulted in departmental action and how many officials had been held accountable.
She said procedural shortcomings should be corrected immediately, while allegations of deliberate violation of rules, collusion or corruption should be subjected to an impartial investigation. Where wrongdoing was established, she demanded strict action in accordance with law. Kumari Selja said mere claims of being committed to fighting corruption were not enough. The real test of transparent governance, she said, was how quickly deficiencies causing losses to the public exchequer were rectified and what action was taken against those responsible.
She urged the Haryana government to make public a time-bound Action Taken Report on the CAG observations. Such a step, she said, would enable people to know what concrete measures had been taken to protect public money and strengthen the state’s revenue administration.
