Report On Natural Asset Accounts To Be Published Shortly: CAG

A report on the asset accounts capturing details of 34 major minerals, 58 minor minerals and all fossil fuels will be published shortly, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said on Friday.

Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board (GASAB), constituted by the CAG in 2002, had prepared a concept paper on Natural Resource Accounting (NRA) envisaging short, medium and long-term goals starting from 2020.

The first goal was the preparation of asset accounts on mineral and energy resources, more importantly of the non-renewable and finite resources, which would ultimately aid in building resilience to environmental issues like climate change.

As per the action plan envisaged in the concept paper, GASAB prepared the templates for the asset accounts for mineral and energy resources, field tested it in three states through pilot studies.

They were then reviewed by the experts in the consultative committee.  The templates were, thereafter, distributed to the states for the preparation of asset accounts.

 To date, all 28 States and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have prepared the Asset Accounts for 2020-21, the CAG said, and added they are being verified and validated by various stakeholders including the state governments.

"The Asset Accounts captured details of 34 major minerals, 58 minor minerals and all four fossil fuels. A report of the asset accounts will be shortly published and an electronic dashboard with information will be hosted on the web," the apex auditor said in a statement.

The work to compile the Asset Accounts for 2021-22 is already underway, it added.  To ensure automated collection and compilation of data from 2022-23, GASAB has also developed SOPs for guiding the states.

Besides the dataflow, the guidelines/SOPs also suggest recommendations for end-to-end mapping of supply and use of resources which would help the states in mopping up due revenues due from these resources and also plug the leakage and wastage, the CAG said.

India is a signatory to the UN General Assembly resolution titled, “Transforming our world; the 2030 agenda for sustainable development” with the approval of more than 190 countries which requires the preparation of Natural Resource Accounts.