Delayed payments under the guaranteed rural employment programme MNREGA fell to 6-year low of Rs 67,956 crore last fiscal ended March 31, a SBI research report said today. The amount of delayed payment had touched a high of Rs 2.38 lakh crore in 2015-16. It was Rs 2.08 lakh crore in 2016-17, said the SBI Ecowrap report based on government data.

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On the other hand total payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) was also at 6-year high of Rs 3.87 lakh crore.

"Delayed payments, which were as high as Rs 2.38 lakh crore in FY16 had declined significantly to merely Rs 67,956 crore in FY18. As a percentage of total payments, the share of delayed payments has decelerated continuously and sharply from 73 per cent in FY15 to 18 per cent in FY18," the report said.

Furthermore, it said the share of more than 90 days in delayed payment has also improved materially and declined from 30 per cent in 2012-13 to 8 per cent last fiscal.

The report also pointed out that although there were only 18 per cent of delayed payments at all-India level, the situation of some of the states is "worrisome".

Apart from eight north eastern states, the big states that have delayed payments more than the national average were Bihar (39 per cent payments were delayed), Uttar Pradesh (36 per cent), Punjab (30 per cent), Maharashtra (27 per cent) and Karnataka (23 per cent).