Opposition Congress today said that budget for the financial year 2022-2023 is not well stitched and will add more burdens to the people of the State, without addressing the fundamental core issues that the state desperately needs.
MPCC secretary in-charge social media and finance, Mauel Badwar in a statement said that the budget lacks vision and initiatives to overcome the current crisis that has been brought about by Covid.
While Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, who is also in charge of finance, highlighted many of his achievements, Badwar said the fundamental macroeconomics of the State as one would deduce from the budget raises many red flags.
“The fiscal deficit itself has gone up to Rs.1849 crores from Rs.1570 crores in the previous year. It seems that the focus of the government is on borrowings rather than internal generation of funds and as a result just the interest payment itself has increased to Rs.110 crores and which is also accompanied by the loan repayment itself of Rs. 946 crores. These two items themselves contribute to a large extent of our deficit,” he said.
Pointing out that there seems to be a trend that the loans procured are from more expensive sources like HUDCO (800Crs), which are more expensive when compared to the soft loans available, Badwar said that this adds up to the repayment burden of the State. “With the increased borrowings of Rs.2632 crores this year as compared to Rs.2244 crores last year, will definitely impact the financial stability of the State in the years to come,” he added.
He said that a lot is being spent on establishment purposes which are non-productive even as revenue expenses have increased to Rs.15, 376 crores (10% year on year jump) and when compared to our revenue received which is at Rs. 16,035 crores (5% year on year jump). Revenue receipt has also not gone up primarily because of the inability to improve tax collection, he added citing example of mining and quarry which saw a huge slump where it contributed to less than 1 per cent of the State’s GSDP.
While capital expenditure has gone down from Rs. 3647 crore in 2021-22 to Rs.3505 crore in 2022-23, Badwar said in all the budgets of the previous years, presented under the current Chief Minister, there has been a trend of increased revenue expenditure in percentage terms as compared capital expenditure.
“It is a well-known fact that increased capital expenditure leads to asset creation, job creation, infrastructure development thereby propelling an economy in the growth trajectory. The youth will be the ones that will suffer the most in the years the come due to lack of opportunities,” he stated.
He also said that the Chief Minister’s vision to be amongst the top 10 in the Indian states in 10 years in terms of per capita income and SDG rankings is nothing but a “brainwash to the public.”
Furthermore, he said that the government seem to be spending more on festivities and other soft items which do not translate to capital infrastructure building while it fail to address the issues of unemployment/employment generation and in providing sustainable opportunities for the people and that there is not much initiatives on bettering health and living conditions of the people.
In fact, he said the Chief Minister in major part of his address spoke about various initiatives, which were initiated in the are actually central initiatives, he asserted.
“Fund allocation for tourism infrastructure has not been matched with the hype. ISBT was also inaugurated with such fanfare but where is the actual business end of it? How many buses have actually moved through those gates? The Shillong-Delhi flight had completed only 19 round trips and out of which 40 per cent of the capacity were from non-revenue generated passengers, which has to be borne by public money and this money could have been spent for better use,” Badwar pointed.
He also referred to the direct job creation of 1500 in the Shillong Technology Park mentioned in the budget statement and said that the office spaces have exceeded capacity. He raised questions on who have been allocated with the spaces, how were the eligible tech companies shortlisted under what rate and the terms and conditions.
While the government collected 276 crores from state excise duties (2019-20) and is projecting 350 crores for excise duty in 2022-23, which is a mark jump he stated, “This translates directly into the government expecting an increase in liquor consumption, which will mean more people falling into alcohol dependency. As we can see right now that there are no rehab centres in the state and the government has not allocated any funds for rehab.”
