PATNA, July 31 -- The finance department on Tuesday clarified that Rs.70,877 crore pendency of utilisation certificates (UCs) as flagged by the CAG in its state of finances report was not an embezzlement of funds and neither there has been any misappropriation of funds. Principal secretary, finance, Anand Kishor, said in a press conference that the reconciliation of UCs against funds including grants earmarked for various development works was a continuous process and already UCs worth Rs.51,750 crore had been done in 24-25 of which a large portion of UCs were from year 23-24. "The reconciliation of UCs is a continuous process and pendency does not mean there has been any embezzlement of funds or misappropriation of funds," said Kishor. He said that in the last five years, the pendency of UCs were the lowest and asserted that the CAG had also not given any instance of embezzlement pertaining to the pendency of UCs in its report. "There has been a high pendency of UCs in previous years, which has reduced in 2023-24," he added. The Comptroller and Auditor General Of India on state finances for the year 2023-24 had observed 'UCs worth Rs.70,877 crore were outstanding and not submitted within the stipulated time frame as on 31st March, 2024'. The finance secretary maintained that departments having high pendency of UCs had been instructed to clear the backlog with grants-in-aid stopped for urban development department and panchayati raj department, which have long pendency of UCs and have not submitted them timely. Kishor also highlighted that the state's fiscal deficit was well within the permissible limit of 3% of the state gross domestic product (GSDP) contrary to the CAG's observation that fiscal deficit in 2023-24 was 4.17 percent. " We have calculated that our fiscal deficit in 2023-24 is 1.97 percent , much lower than the permissible 3 percent," said Kishor. Kishor said all these points would be put before the Public Account Committee( PAC) of the state assembly when the CAG report would be discussed as per the norms. "We will put forth our points on various issues raised by CAG in its report. The PAC would scrutinise it and then the government would take action" said Kishor....