NEW DELHI: During the last two years, the government collected more than Rs 16,400 crore as Swachh Bharat cess, meant to fund sanitation schemes, but the Comptroller and Auditor General ( CAG ) has pointed out nearly a quarter of the collection has stayed outside the dedicated fund.While collections through the 0.5% cess on all services was meant to be transferred to a non-lapsable Rashtriya Swachhta Kosh , over Rs 4,000 crore remained outside the RSK schemes.CAG said Rs 12,400 crore, around 75% of total collections, was transferred to the RSK and used for identified schemes in the last two years.“The rules stipulated that the resources of RSK were to be distributed in the ratio of 80:20 between Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban).However, the ministry of drinking water and sanitation expended the entire amount on Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) without leaving any provision for Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban),” the auditor pointed out on the portion of funds utilised.The national auditor has said that the experience was similar with other cesses. The CAG has found that in case of six major cesses, where total collections were to the tune of Rs 4 lakh crore till 2016-17, over Rs 1.81 lakh crore, or nearly 45% of the funds collected, remained unutilised and were not transferred from the government’s Consolidated Fund of India to the dedicated funds or the intended schemes.Opposition parties in Parliament had earlier raised the issue of non-utilisation of cesses and had demanded an explanation from the government for unnecessarily burdening taxpayers with additional levies.The CAG too, has pointed out that large amounts collected through cess remained unutilised, thus defeating the purpose for which they are created.In a report tabled in Parliament last week, the CAG has said that against the total collection of Rs 83,497 crore towards the secondary and higher education cess during 2006-07 to 20016-17, nothing was “transferred to the earmarked fund as neither the schemes were identified on which the cess proceeds were to be spent nor the designated fund was created to deposit the proceeds of the cess”. The levy collected remained with the consolidated fund of India for general expenditure of the government.The government had created the research and development cess in 1986. It was to be levied on all imported technology and the fund used to encourage indigenously developed technology.From 1996-97 to 2016-17, the government collected Rs 7,885 crore as R&D cess but disbursed only Rs 609 crore to the Technology Development Board (TDB), the fund meant to encourage indigenous R&D.The auditor also examined the cess under central road fund and found that the Centre had collected over Rs 2.43 lakh crore from 2010-11 to 2016-17 but transferred only Rs 1.95 lakh crore to the CRF , with a shortfall of over Rs 48,000 crore.