When domestic savings and investment fall short of the requirement, one needs to resort to foreign aid in the form of grants or loans either from foreign governments or from International financial institutions. As is true of every other developing nation, India too requires foreign aid for some years to come with a view to supplementing its domestic resources provided both by Public and Private Sectors.
It is not gratifying to note that India has been found wanting in utilizing the sanctioned foreign aid to the tune of Rs.1 lakh crore by Ministries like Urban Development, Water Resources and Energy as reported by the Government Auditor viz., the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
“As on March 31, 2010 unutilised committed external assistance was of the order of Rs.1,05,339 crore" the Comptroller and Auditor(CAG) said in his report tabled in Parliament on Friday, March 18, 2011.
It is also a point of concern to us that the Government has paid commitment charges of Rs.86.11 crore during the year 2009-10 in the form of penalty for not timely utilizing the aid approved by multilateral and bilateral lending agencies. The CAG further attributes the above failure to inadequate planning resulting in avoidable expenditure in the form of commitment charges.
God knows the reason for the inability of Planning Commission of India for not having reviewed such a poor performance on the part of the concerned ministries in the Govt. of India. The Cabinet Secretary and the Secretaries concerned are unable to ensure full utilization of the foreign assistance made available to the projects which almost amounts to a criminal neglect on the part of all those involved in advocating foreign aid and all those agencies involved in implementation of such projects for which foreign aid was sought and obtained.
Who is to bell the cat and pull the Indian bullock cart together in a desired direction?
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