The new electronic attendance system, which aims to curb fake claims, will also aid in keeping the numbers contained.
The rural development ministry has pegged the FY24 person-day generation target (called labour budget) at 2,120 million under the MGNREGS, an official told ET. This represents an almost 27% drop from 2,902.4 million (actual) person-days in the last fiscal. However, the government remains prepared if actual demand exceeds the target, a senior official said.
These data don’t include West Bengal as work under the scheme remains suspended over alleged misappropriation of funds, he said.
In FY23, West Bengal’s contribution to the country’s overall person-day generation under the scheme crashed to 1.3% from 10-11% in the previous three years, according to the provisional data as of April 17. The data are usually revised when updated information flows in.
The Centre had stopped the release of funds to West Bengal in early 2022 under Section 27 of the MGNREGA, as it believed that the state had failed to initiate adequate action against those involved in the alleged irregularities detected by national monitoring teams in 2019 and 2021, said the official.
As for the FY24 target, the official said the introduction of a new app-based attendance system from February 2023 will weed out fake claims of person-day generation. This, in addition to sustained economic recovery, will help reduce actual work demand.
The finance ministry expects economic growth to touch about 6.5% in FY24, against an estimated 7% in the current fiscal, even though the favourable base effect wanes.
Another official said enhanced allocations for schemes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (rural) and Jal Jeevan Yojana in the Budget for FY24 could also trigger a shift of some workers from MGNREGS to these activities. This, too, could reduce demand under the rural job guarantee scheme, he added.
The government has budgeted ₹60,000 crore under the scheme for FY24, lower than the budget estimate of ₹73,000 crore and revised estimate of ₹89,400 crore for FY23. However, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has stated that more funds would be allocated for the scheme if required.
As such, data show the final MGNREGS allocation has exceeded the budget estimate each year in the range of 12% to 81% since FY16.