The ₹14,450 Crore Skill India Scandal: What CAG Found

A taxpayer’s guide based entirely on the official CAG audit report

If you’re an Indian taxpayer, here’s what happened to a significant portion of your tax money. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) recently tabled a damning report in Parliament exposing massive irregularities in the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)—the government’s flagship skill training program.

This blog contains only verified facts from the official CAG Performance Audit Report No. 20 of 2025, tabled in the Lok Sabha on December 18, 2025.

The Numbers: What Was Promised vs. What Happened

The Investment

Between 2015 and 2022, three phases of PMKVY were launched with:

• Total outlay: ₹14,450 crore
• Funds released: ₹10,194 crore
• Target: Train and certify 1.32 crore candidates
• Certificates issued: 1.1 crore

Sounds impressive? Wait until you see what the CAG actually found.

Finding #1: The Ghost Bank Accounts

What CAG Discovered:

For PMKVY 2.0 and 3.0, analysis revealed that in 94.53% of cases—affecting 90,66,264 out of 95,90,801 participants—the bank account details field either contained zeros, was marked ‘Null’, ‘N/A’, or was left completely blank.

Let that sink in. 94.53% of beneficiary records had no valid bank account information.

The Fake Account Numbers:

Even in cases where unique bank accounts were listed for individual candidates (4,72,156 accounts), investigators found patently invalid account numbers including ‘11111111111’, ‘123456’, single-digit account numbers, and entries containing just text, names, addresses, or special characters.

Think about this: Government officials processed payments to bank accounts literally numbered “111111111” and “123456”.

Duplicate Accounts:

The remaining 5,24,537 candidates shared just 12,122 bank account numbers between them, meaning over 52,000 bank account numbers were reused for multiple participants.

Finding #2: The Missing Payments

Unpaid Beneficiaries:

According to CAG findings, 34 lakh (3.4 million) certified candidates had not received their stipend payments, despite the relevant PMKVY phases having formally concluded.

The scheme promised ₹500 Direct Benefit Transfer to each certified candidate. As of October 2024, while 63.75% of candidates had received DBT payments, over 3.4 million certified candidates were still awaiting payment.

Failed Payment System:

In 2023, DBT payments were processed for only 25.58% of candidates and were successful for just 18.44% of cases.

Finding #3: Fake Email Addresses

When CAG conducted an online beneficiary survey, the email delivery failure rate was 36.51%. Where emails were delivered, responses were received from only a small fraction, with a significant number originating from the same email ID or from training partners and centers rather than actual trainees.

The audit found widespread use of invalid email addresses, including entries like zeros followed by @gmail.com, abc@gmail.com, abcd@gmail.com, 123@gmail.com, and random numbers followed by @gmail.com.

Finding #4: The Duplicate Photos

Field inspections and analysis revealed that identical photographs were submitted as evidence for multiple beneficiaries across different states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan.

Under PMKVY-RPL guidelines, high-resolution photographs and videos of certification batches are required. However, analysis of 24 batches revealed repeated photographic evidence across states. For instance, the same photo was used for batch number 57241 in Gaya, Bihar, and batch number 67518 in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh.

Finding #5: Ghost Training Centers

During field inspections, CAG found that training centers were closed even though the Skill India Portal indicated training was scheduled on inspection dates. Specifically, three out of 10 training centers in Bihar and one of 17 in Odisha were closed at the time of survey.

Centers marked as “active” on government dashboards were found shut when auditors visited.

Finding #6: Fake Students (Ineligible Certifications)

Despite minimum age and qualification requirements being specified for various job roles, thousands of underage candidates were enrolled and certified. Over 52,000 candidates were certified for ‘Group Farming Practitioner’ without meeting the minimum age requirement of 20 years, while more than 40,000 underage candidates were certified as ‘Self-Employed Tailors’ without meeting the minimum age of 18 years.

The scheme had clear eligibility criteria. These were systematically ignored.

Finding #7: The Employment Fraud

Placement Rate: Only 41%

Of the 56.14 lakh candidates certified under Short Term Training and Special Projects components, only 23.18 lakh candidates (41%) were placed in jobs.

But even this 41% figure is questionable:

In Kerala, incorrect placement documents were produced by Training Partners as proof of placement. After being pointed out by Audit, ₹22.33 lakh was recovered by the State Government, apart from blacklisting the agency.

No Job Market Alignment:

CAG found that job roles were not mapped to micro-level labour market needs. Training was not consistently aligned with skill requirements, and there was an absence of objective assessment of market demand for specific job roles.

Finding #8: The Biometric Attendance Scam

To prevent fraud, PMKVY mandated Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) from April 1, 2018.

The audit found that nearly 87% of batches lacked verifiable attendance records. Only 13% of batches under Short Term Training/Special Projects trainings since 2018 were compliant with the Aadhaar-based attendance system requirement.

During inspections of Training Centers, biometric devices were either not functional or attendance was recorded through other means in violation of guidelines.

Finding #9: The Wasted Funds

Unutilized State Funds:

Out of ₹1,380.87 crore disbursed to States for PMKVY 2.0 and 3.0 during 2016-24, ₹277.40 crore (20.09%) remained unutilized as of March 2024.

Even in the pre-COVID period (2016-19), utilization was only ₹149.85 crore against releases of ₹757.82 crore.

Financial Irregularities:

The CAG documented delayed fund releases, non-utilization of funds, violations of receipt and payment rules, incorrect estimation and delayed transfer of ₹222.63 crore, failure to release funds to District Skill Councils, recovery of ₹12.16 crore in interest retained by implementing agencies, and ₹24.13 crore overcharged as administrative expenses under PMKVY 1.0.

Finding #10: No Quality Control

The apex quality assurance body was still “in the process of establishment” and exercised limited oversight. There was no credible mechanism to identify or verify intended beneficiaries. Evidence that should have been elementary—photographs, videos, records of education or work experience—was either not captured or not preserved.

CAG observed instances where skills certification was issued by employers who did not meet the scheme’s criteria for being classified as ‘Best-in-Class’, raising concerns about the quality and industry relevance of certifications awarded.

Who Benefited? Who Suffered?

The Winners:

The CAG report documents systematic fraud but doesn’t name specific individuals or organizations that benefited (that would require criminal investigation). However, the pattern is clear:

• Training partners who received funds for non-existent or substandard training
• Entities that created fake documentation
• Those who exploited weak monitoring systems

The Losers:

During a survey of trainees in ongoing batches, about 20% were not even aware of cash benefits they were entitled to receive.

Real unemployed youth who could have genuinely benefited never got proper access to quality skill training or meaningful job placements.

Your Tax Money: The Reality Check

If you earn ₹10 lakhs annually, you pay roughly ₹1.2 lakhs in income tax. The ₹14,450 crore allocated to PMKVY equals the annual income tax of approximately 12 lakh middle-class taxpayers.

All that money was supposed to:

• Create skilled workers
• Reduce youth unemployment
• Transform India’s workforce capability

Instead:

• 94.53% of records had invalid or missing bank details
• 34 lakh certified candidates never received their stipends
• 87% of batches had no verifiable attendance

Government’s Response

The Ministry stated that bank details were initially mandatory but later made non-mandatory due to implementation challenges, with payments to be routed via Aadhaar-seeded Direct Benefit Transfer.

In its response, the Ministry said it has significantly strengthened the scheme, introducing technology-enabled monitoring, Aadhaar-authenticated e-KYC, face authentication, geo-tagged attendance, QR-coded digital certificates, oversight through Skill India Digital Hub and Kaushal Samiksha Kendra, enhanced inspections, a defined penalty framework, and disciplinary action against non-compliant entities.

Critical Questions

1. How were payments approved to accounts numbered “111111111” and “123456”?
2. Why did 94.53% of records lack valid bank information?
3. How were underage candidates certified in violation of guidelines?
4. Why were training centers marked “active” when they were physically closed?
5. Why did nearly 87% of batches violate biometric attendance requirements?
6. What happened to the ₹277.40 crore that remained unutilized?
7. Have any officials or training partners been held accountable?
8. Has any money been recovered?

The Bigger Picture

What the audit ultimately exposes is not just administrative failure, but a culture that privileged numbers over outcomes, dashboards over verification, and publicity over accountability.

The CAG report was tabled in Parliament on December 18, 2025. Youth unemployment among those aged 15-29 stood at around 15% in May 2025. While millions of young Indians desperately needed genuine skill training, the scheme they were counting on was riddled with fraud.

What You Can Do

As a taxpayer, you have rights:

1. Ask Questions: Use RTI (Right to Information) to ask specific questions about PMKVY implementation in your constituency
2. Demand Accountability: Write to your MP asking what action is being taken
3. Stay Informed: Read CAG reports—they’re public documents available at cag.gov.in
4. Vote Wisely: When politicians claim success in skill development, ask about implementation and outcomes, not just budget allocation
5. Spread Awareness: Share this information with other taxpayers

The Bottom Line

₹14,450 crore of taxpayer money was allocated to a program that:

• Certified people who may never have attended training
• Paid money to bank accounts numbered “111111111”
• Left 34 lakh certified beneficiaries unpaid
• Ignored its own eligibility criteria
• Had no functioning quality control

This isn’t about politics. This is about your money—earned through hard work, deducted as tax, and then misused on a massive scale.

The CAG noted that without robust data integrity, payment transparency, and ground-level verification, the actual outcomes of large public expenditure programs like PMKVY remain highly questionable.

Sources

All information in this blog is sourced from:

• CAG Performance Audit Report No. 20 of 2025 on “Skill Development under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana”
• Tabled in Lok Sabha: December 18, 2025
• Available at: https://cag.gov.in

Verification Note: Every claim in this blog is directly supported by the CAG report. No speculation, no exaggeration—just the documented facts of how ₹14,450 crore of taxpayer money was managed.

Share this with every taxpayer you know. They have a right to know where their money went.

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