Government likely to keep MGNREGA labour budget for 2017-18 unchanged

For the second year running, the Centre is likely to approve a labour budget of around 2.2 billion person-days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

The labour budget, for 201718, could be enhanced as well, if more demand is generated owing to drought or insufficient rainfall in any part of the country, senior officials said.

Labour budget refers to advance labour estimates for execution of a shelf of works for the next financial year, while person-day is a unit of measurement based on an ideal amount of work done by one person in one day.

The officials said a greater emphasis would be laid on the generation of durable assets through water conservation, irrigation projects and farm ponds.

Pending labour wages by the end of 2016-17 could be around ~3,000-4,000 crore, which, the officials said, would be cleared within the first fortnight of financial year 2017-18. The Centre, like in the case of the current financial year, has decided to release half of the total MGNREGA budget of ~48,000 crore to the states in April itself.

It would be much easier this time, though, as the Finance Bill has already been cleared by the Lok Sabha and would be enacted from April 1.

Till the third week of March, pending labour wages totalled ~4,625 crore, while material expenses and administrative expenditure, which includes payments to MGNREGA assistants, stood at ~3,824 crore and ~1,503 crore, respectively.

In 2016-17, till late March, 2.17 billion person-days of work has been generated under the scheme as against an approved labour budget of 2.21 billion.

In 2015-16 and 2016-17, around nine million hectares of fresh irrigation potential has been created through the scheme, by building farm ponds, irrigation structures, community tanks, check dams and also rejuvenating traditional water structures, the officials said, adding that the potential will be enhanced in the coming financial year.

Apart from focusing on water conservation projects, the Centre is also aiming to reduce the delay in payments. “Our target will be to ensure that over 80 per cent of the wages are paid directly into the bank accounts of workers in time in 2017-18,” an official said.