Budget 2018: Highest funding to MGNREGA in 2017, yet 56% wages were delayed

Delayed wages accounted for 56% of all MGNREGA wage payments in 2016-17, up from 39% in 2012-13

The 2017-18 budget saw the highest ever allocation to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)–the world’s largest make-work programme–at Rs 480 billion, but 56% wages were delayed and 15% wage seekers did not find work in 2016-17, an IndiaSpend analysis of government data shows.

The allocation to be announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 1, 2018, when he presents his government’s last full-year budget ahead of the general elections in 2019 will be closely watched, even as his government has decided to “pump an additional Rs 70 billion into the rural job scheme”