Parliament Question: Wage Arrears under MGNREGS

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1491 ANSWERED ON 29/07/2025 WAGE ARREARS UNDER MGNREGS

1491. Com. Selvaraj V:

Shri Subbarayan K:

Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

(a) whether it is a fact that the wages of workers under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

(MGNREGS) are in arrears in the States due to the delay in the allotment of funds from the Union Government;

(b) if so, the details thereof the dues from the Union Government, state-wise; and

(c) if not, the reasons therefor along with the steps taken to clear the same? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI KAMLESH PASWAN)

(a)to(c): Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand-driven wage employment scheme under thenScheme. Fund release is a continuous process.

Under Scheme the wage payments are directly credited by the Central Government to the account of 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 after due procedures. At the beginning of each financial year, admissible pending liabilities of the previous year, if any, are duly reimbursed by the Government of India. Accordingly, all pending wage liabilities upto FY 2024-25 (Except that of West Bengal) have already been cleared.

Page 1 of 3In the current Financial Year (as on 24.07.2025), an amount of Rs. 46,395.12 crore has been released to the States including 100% of pending wage liabilities of FY 2024-25. 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 after following the due procedures, the fund release status keeps updating on a daily basis.

State/Union Territory (UT)-wise details of pending liabilities for wage components under the Scheme as on 24.07.2025 is given at Annexure. ***** Page 2 of 3Annexure Annexure referred to in reply to parts (a)to(c) of LokSabhaUnstarred Question No. 1491 dated 29.07.2025.

Sl. No. State/ UT Wage liability 1 Andhra Pradesh 1660.9 2 Arunachal Pradesh 3.12 3 Assam 185.55 4 Bihar 868.8 5 Chhattisgarh 32.82 6 Goa 0.35 7 Gujarat 42.03 8 Haryana 8.77 9 Himachal Pradesh 50.91 10 Jammu & Kashmir 18.93 11 Jharkhand 298.28 12 Karnataka 140.57 13 Kerala 417.05 14 Madhya Pradesh 211.93 15 Maharashtra 348.05 16 Manipur 4.81 17 Meghalaya 10.57 18 Mizoram 1.09 19 Nagaland 4.98 20 Odisha 81.82 21 Punjab 261.54 22 Rajasthan 561.28 23 Sikkim 4.71 24 Tamil Nadu 210.94 25 Telangana 451.12 26 Tripura 17.92 27 Uttar Pradesh 917.51 28 Uttarakhand 4 29 Andaman & Nicobar 0 30 Lakshadweep 0 31 Puducherry 11.38 32 Ladakh 0.62 Dadra & Nagar Haveli & Daman & 33 0 Diu 34 West Bengal # 3,038 There is no pending liability for previous years for wage component in case of any States/UTs, except in case of State of West Bengal.

# Pending liability in case of State of West Bengal includes wage, material and admin component. Release of fund to the State of West Bengal has been stopped since 9th March, 2022 as per provision of section 27 of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 due to non compliance with directives of Central Government.

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