Meghalaya may be borrowing to fuel growth but it cannot surpass debt limits set by the central government, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma reassured the Assembly today.
“The government of India has very strong mechanisms and monitoring systems where no state can go beyond a certain level (of borrowings),” Sangma said. “So, even if the government of Meghalaya intends to take anything beyond what it is supposed to take, the government of India will put a stop to it. There is no way in which we can go beyond those limits.”
Sangma presented another deficit budget in the Assembly today, funded in large part by external borrowings.
“Any organization or any state has to borrow. It’s a normal process. But the borrowing has to be within a limit,” he added. “If we look at economies that are facing difficulties, you will find that governments come in and always pump in and spend more so that they give a boost to the economy. The government has a very important role to overcome the inertia and push overall demand and that’s what we’ve been doing… We’re also ensuring that we are creating a sustainable environment for the private sector to come up because that’s how ultimately we can take advantage of the overall investments that the government is making. It’s a complete strategy that involves different stakeholders.”
The government has made a much-publicised desire that Meghalaya’s economy grow to $10 billion by 2028 and Sangma referred to this again in his budget speech today.
He assured the house that the figures of state GDP are reliably prepared by the Statistics Department and are not plucked out of thin air. The Comptroller and Auditor General also audits the government’s books, adding another level of checking.
