The Hynñiewtrep Youth Council (HYC), has said that it is was confused whether to believe the words of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on the recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on the State finances audit report.
In an “open letter”, to Sangma, the HYC said that the citizens of the State wanted to be clear whether the State it will be able to achieve the ambitious target of 10 billion dollar economy by 2028 “…or whether the financial positions of our State will be worse going forward knowing that our State is in ‘debt trap’ to the tune of Rs 15,000 crores and counting.”
HYC president Roy Kupar Synrem stated that although the chief minister and the officers of the Finance Department were hyper-proactive in rebutting the CAG Report and its observation that the State is potentially high into falling in a debt trap, yet as stakeholders of the State, citizens want certain questions to be answered by the government and the officers concerned.
He said that it is common knowledge that loans are not grants and not all loans taken by the government is in the form of a grant, as tried to explain by the chief minister to allay fears that most loans taken by the State government are interest free loans for 50 years.
“The report of the CAG states that Meghalaya’s loans include market loans of Rs 11,285.50 crore, loans from financial institutions of Rs 1,349.04 crore and Rs 2,002.58 crore loans and advances from the Government of India. Is it not a fact that a loan once taken has to be repaid, with or without interest? And in the event, such loans are not able to be repaid, within the stipulated time, then what will be the consequences?” the HYC president stated.
According to Synrem, loans cannot be taken without collateral and therefore the question arises as to the collateral given against these loans and what were these loans taken for? He even said that citizens of the State are entitled to also know as to how the loans have accumulated to such a colossal amount.
The HYC president stated that as witnessed in recent years, the State government has utilised public money for programmes which are not fruitful like festivals and which did not generate wealth to the State.
“The State government has utilised public money in so many unproductive activities like appointment of countless political appointees, consultants. Moreover, we have witnessed the inflation of cost of various projects like the Saubhagya Scheme, construction of Assembly building and others. If the amount taken as loans is being utilised by the State government on these unfruitful programmes and activities, for perks and salaries to political appointees and inflation on cost of projects, then how does the government justify the same?” Synrem asked.
Fourthly, the HYC stated that it has been detected by the CAG that the State government has failed to recover the public money in the form of taxes, cess, royalty, fees from various persons and entities who are supposed to pay such taxes.
“One also sees that the government has waived the taxes to certain categories of private individuals and companies like the VAT from petrol pump owners, electricity bills to factories. A government takes a lot of loans but still comes out with these kinds of freebies to companies and few privileged individuals. Then what will happen when it comes to the repayment capacity of the loans taken?” Synrem asked.
He also pointed out that as can be seen from the CAG reports year after year that there are public undertakings and corporations who have become the ‘white elephants’ for the State and immediate corrective actions must be taken by the government.
The HYC sought to know if these “white elephant entities” are run by money taken as loans and whether the State government will be able to repay the loans when these entities are running on losses.
