Parliament Question: Outstanding dues under MGNREGS

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 933 TO BE ANSWERED ON 06/02/2026 OUTSTANDING DUES UNDER MGNREGS 933 Smt. Rajathi : Will the Minister of Rural Development be pleased to state: (a) the current status of outstanding pending liabilities to States under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) including Tamil Nadu as of January 2026; and (b) the proposed timeline for the release of pending liabilities to Tamil Nadu? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI KAMLESH PASWAN) (a)& (b): Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand-driven wage employment scheme. Under the Scheme, the Wage payments are directly credited by the Central Government to the accounts of the beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer protocol. Sanctions for Wage payments are issued daily by the Ministry through the Public Finance Management System (PFMS) based on fund transfer orders received from the States/ UTs after following due procedures. At the beginning of each financial year, admissible pending liabilities of the previous years, if any, are duly reimbursed by the Government of India. Accordingly, all due and admissible pending wage liabilities upto FY 2024-25 have already been cleared. With regard to Material and Admin components, States/UTs including Tamil Nadu are required to furnish fund release proposals to the Government of India. The Central Government releases funds periodically in two tranches with each tranche consisting of one or more installments, keeping in view the “agreed to” Labour Budget, demand for works, opening balance, pace of utilization of funds, pending liabilities, overall performance and subject to submission of relevant documents by the States/UTs including Tamil Nadu. Under the Scheme, in the current financial year 2025-26 (as on 01.02.2026), an amount of Rs. 76,353.51 crore has been released to the States/Union Territories, which includes Rs.63,400.54 crore for wage component and an amount of Rs.12,952.96 crore for Material and Admin. As Sanction for payment of wages are issued by Ministry on a daily basis through PFMS (Public Finance Management System), after receipt of funds transfer orders from States/UTs after following the due procedures, the fund release status keeps updating on a daily basis. State/Union Territory (UT)-wise, including Tamil Nadu details of pending liabilities for Wage, Material and Admin component under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS as on 30.01.2026 are given at Annexure. ***** Page 1 of 2Annexure Annexure referred to in reply to parts (a)&(b) of Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 933 dated 06.02.2026. State/Union Territory (UT)-wise, including Tamil Nadu details of pending liabilities for Wage, Material and Admin component under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS as on 30.01.2026. (Rs. in crore) Sl. No. State/UTs Wage Component Material Component Admin Component 1 Andhra Pradesh 56.06 694.83 45.70 2 Arunachal Pradesh 65.14 0.00 0.00 3 Assam 57.93 374.78 14.99 4 Bihar 212.09 0.00 0.00 5 Chhattisgarh 142.04 0.00 5.49 6 Goa 0.01 0.50 0.02 7 Gujarat 36.03 29.47 0.00 8 Haryana 5.63 6.75 0.75 9 Himachal Pradesh 31.30 0.00 0.00 10 Jammu And Kashmir 91.24 161.59 0.00 11 Jharkhand 120.48 179.85 0.00 12 Karnataka 111.55 544.96 0.00 13 Kerala 734.72 177.92 17.35 14 Ladakh 2.45 4.14 0.10 15 Madhya Pradesh 178.90 410.78 3.06 16 Maharashtra 492.80 0.00 22.58 17 Manipur 142.51 179.19 0.00 18 Meghalaya 50.75 0.00 0.00 19 Mizoram 7.52 0.00 0.00 20 Nagaland 7.26 56.16 0.00 21 Odisha 178.39 61.51 0.31 22 Punjab 19.16 113.50 0.00 23 Rajasthan 237.15 712.55 0.00 24 Sikkim 0.97 0.00 0.00 25 Tamil Nadu 1001.23 432.27 0.00 26 Telangana 22.86 0.00 0.00 27 Tripura 15.70 99.87 2.34 28 Uttar Pradesh 462.80 28.40 19.90 29 Uttarakhand 34.79 0.00 0.00 30 West Bengal* 0.00 0.00 0.00 31 Andaman And Nicobar 0.02 0.14 0.00 Dadra & Nagar Haveli & Daman & 32 0.69 Diu 0.03 0.00 33 Lakshadweep 0.00 0.00 0.00 34 Puducherry 0.01 0.02 0.67 Total 4520.18 4269.21 133.26 *The release of funds to the State of West Bengal under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) was also stopped with effect from 09.03.2022 by invoking the provisions of Section 27 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, owing to continued non-compliance with the directives of the Central Government by the State. As per the NREGASoft, the pending liability pertaining to the State of West Bengal (as on 08.03.2022) stands at ₹3082.52 crore, comprising ₹1457.22 crore under the wage component, ₹1607.68 crore under the material component, and ₹17.62 crore under the administrative component. The admissibility of this liability is subject to verification by the Central Government. ***** Page 2 of 2