NEW DELHI: The utilisation of funds in the film sector by the Government in 2011-12 is Rs 1.25 billion as against the budget estimates of Rs 1.63 billion and revised estimates of Rs 1.39 billion.

This is despite the fact that the utilisation of funds had jumped above the budget and revised estimates in just one year ? 2010-11 ? when an estimated Rs 1.02 billion was spent as against the allocation of Rs 880 million and revised estimates of Rs 968.2 million.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that this was attributable to the coverage of the Commonwealth Games in October 2010.

The actual expenditure for the other years of the plan as against the budget estimate (BE) and revised estimates (RE) was: 2007-08 ? Rs 298.7 million (BE Rs 419.8 million and RE Rs 300 million); 2008-09 ? Rs 369.2 million (BE Rs 670 million and RE Rs 500.6 million); and 2009-10 ? Rs 628.4 million (BE Rs 600 million and RE Rs 668.4 million).

The proposed outlay for the 11th Plan rose from Rs 1.28 billion in 2007-08 to Rs 3.45 billion in 2011-12. The proposed outlay for the other years was: 2008-09 ? Rs 971.4 million; 2009-10 ? Rs 1.2 billion, and 2010-11 ? Rs 2.28 billion.

The revenue in the film sector for 2010-11 was Rs 462.1 million against a capital expenditure of Rs 224.7 million.

The total budget allocation for the film sector in the 11th Plan is Rs 4.20 billion out of a total Rs 36.86 billion, thus amounting to 11.4 per cent of the total budget allocation of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Ministry sources admitted that Indian cinema had not attained as much acclaim in the past few decades as it had enjoyed up to the 1970s or even in the 1980s.

Taking note of this, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology said ?a concerted effort should be made during the 12th Plan to ensure that promotion of Indian cinema abroad is carried out in a more structured and vociferous manner.?

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NEW DELHI: Concerned over the ‘unsatisfactory performance‘ of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in spending just over 30 per cent of its allocation in the first four months of the Eleventh Plan, a Parliamentary Committee has asked the Ministry to analyse the reasons for under utilisation of outlay scheme/sector-wise.

The Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology dealing with the budgetary demands of the I&B Ministry in a recent report asked the Ministry to "gear up its monitoring mechanism" to ensure that the allocated funds are fully utilised and all the on-going schemes may be strictly monitored to keep pace with the expenditure. The Committee has also sought a report on the specific steps taken by the Ministry in this regard.

It noted that the overall outlay for 2011-12 had been increased by Rs 255.8 million over the Budgetary Allocation for 2010-11, which works out to insignificant increase of 0.97 per cent.

For the Eleventh Plan (2007-12), the Planning Commission had approved total outlay of Rs 54.39 billion. During a Mid Term appraisal, the outlay was enhanced to Rs 63.11 billion due to additional outlay for "High and Lower Power Transmitters for Jammu and Kashmir Border Areas" and "Commonwealth Games 2010 and Related Programmes".

But the Committee noted that the actual expenditure during the first four years of the Eleventh Plan was Rs 19.17 billion (Information Sector Rs 2.55 billion, Film Sector Rs 1.98 billion and Broadcasting Sector Rs 14.64 billion), which is just 30.38 per cent of the total Budgetary allocation.

The Committee noted it had expressed serious concern over inability of the Ministry to fully utilise the outlay in its Sixth Report on Demands for Grants (2010-11), and had pointed out that under-utilisation of funds is a perennial problem with the Ministry, which is an indicator of its poor budgeting mechanism and failure of monitoring mechanism to review the implementation of various schemes/projects.

In spite of that, the Committee noted that under-utilisation still persists under different schemes/projects in all three sectors of the Ministry. Besides inability of the Ministry to fully utilise the outlay, delay in approval of important schemes of the Ministry, as discussed in the subsequent part of the report, are areas of concern. The Committee, therefore, impress upon the Ministry to take steps to make the implementation mechanism more effective.

Referring to tardy implementation of schemes, the Committee said that this "clearly indicates that there are serious problems in the whole planning process which is not conducive for the overall functioning of the Ministry."

The Committee desired that the Ministry should work out a more streamlined approval system so that the situation of non-clearance of the schemes does not persist. The Committee recommended that the Ministry should take corrective measures so that the situation of non-clearance of schemes does not get repeated during the Twelfth Plan.

According to the Ministry, it had formulated 86 schemes at the beginning of the Eleventh Plan. However, the total number of schemes was reduced to 65 at the time of Zero Based Budgeting exercise undertaken by the Planning Commission in May 2007.

During examination of the previous year‘s Demands for Grants (2010-11), the Committee had noted that out of total 38 new schemes, 13 schemes were awaiting approval and out of 28 on-going schemes, approval for two schemes was pending. Thus in total 15 schemes were pending clearance/approval.

Having observed that delay in approval of the schemes was one of the factors responsible for under-utilisation of outlay, the Committee in the Sixth Report on Demands for Grants (2010-11) had asked the Ministry to work out a more streamlined approval system.

In spite of that, four important schemes of the Ministry, which include Global Film School, Setting up of a National Centre of Excellence for Animation, Gaming and Special Effects, the National Film Heritage Mission under the Film Sector and the International Channel under the Broadcasting Sector were still awaiting approval/clearance even when Annual Plan 2011-12 was in the last year of the Eleventh Plan.

The Committee disapproved the way projects are being planned by the Ministry. All the schemes were formulated at the beginning of the Eleventh Plan and in the process four precious years were lost.