The previous Tamil Nadu government, led by ADMK's Edappadi Palaniswami, has deliberately put the state coffers under the unprecedented scale of loss by rolling out wasteful expenditure and measures of benefiting the contractors. Under Palaniswami's regime, the government had endured a loss worth crores and the pile of financial loss has come to light through the audit report that was tabled in the assembly on Thursday. 

The audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) would usually be tabled every year in the assembly over the state's financial record and its expenditure. However, the report hasn't entered the assembly door for the past few years under Edappadi Palaniswami's regime. As the government has changed in the state, the audit report was placed on Thursday during the last day of the first session of the current assembly. 

The CAG had done an audit for four state government entities - Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO), Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TICEL Bio park), and the state's cement corporation. While the audit for TANGEDCO was done for the year ended 31 March 2019, the audit for the rest three entities was done for the year ended 31 March 2018.

The audit had highlighted that each entity had incurred a loss that could have been prevented by the rulers. In its report on TASMAC bars that are operated by the private parties, the CAG has revealed the absence of a suitable clause in the agreement for increasing the license fee for private parties in case of extension of their license period. The deliberate absence had resulted in the loss of Rs 18.67 crore to the government's treasury. 

The major loss and wasteful expenditure had happened in TANGEDCO. According to the audit report, the state's Electricity Board had acquired 71.82 Million Metric Tonnes of indigenous coal during 2014-2019 from coal companies and transported 70.12 MMT through rail-sea-rail route from coal mines to the ports - Kamarajar Port in Chennai and Tuticorin port for further transportation of coal to the thermal power plants. Of the remaining 1.70 MMT, one tonne of coal, that was received from Chattisgarh during 2017-2019 and 0.70 tonne of coal from Singareni Collieries during 2016-2018 was transported by rail route to plants.

It was during the stretch of transportation that the Electricity Board had faced wasteful expenditure. The audit had outlined that the cost of operation of unloading coal from ship to the private terminal was Rs 71.17 per MT when compared to another coal berth (CB-2) during 2014-2019. However, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board had decided to use the private terminal because the CB-2 was shared by the Electricity Board and NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation) in a Joint Venture without any formal agreement. The usage of the private terminal by the previous government had resulted in an extra expenditure of Rs 41.68 crore. 

The report has further put out the fact that the actual coal transit loss had exceeded the permissible limit during the auditing period. However, TANGEDCO had neither analyzed the reasons for the excess transit loss nor levied any accountability on the contractor as the contract didn't have any clause for recovering the same from the contractor. The audit has said that TANGEDCO had also incurred an unproductive expenditure of Rs 55.34 crore. 

It had said that TANGEDCO should ensure that coal shortages are recorded at regular intervals and recoveries be effected before the closure of the contract to protect financial interest. The audit has revealed that the government has incurred a wasteful expenditure of Rs 71 lakh through the operation of a mine in the albeit of knowing the poor quality of granite in the mine. In the audit of TICEL Bio Park, the report under the heading of 'wasteful expenditure' had said that procurement of lab equipment without employing adequate manpower to handle them had put the equipment in idle and resulted in a loss of Rs 17.32 crore for more than four years. 

Concerning the audit of Tamil Nadu Cements Corporation, the report has said that the appointment of an unqualified agency as a consignment agent and extension of credit facility without any security led to non-recovery of dues of Rs 4.49 crore. The shocking revelation of the audit report had showered the light that the state of the treasury under Edappadi Palaniswami's regime was faltered and pushed Tamil Nadu to face a further financial deficit.