Goa heaves sigh of relief at Budget bonanza
Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government's new policy of offering central
assistance to states brought out a sigh of relief from Goa, which is presently undergoing an acute financial crisis.
The additional benefit would give the state government at least 50 per cent more than what it had anticipated. But it is also likely that the funds will
be once again exhausted in paying the salaries of government employees rather than building the infrastructure that the state badly needs.
To overcome the crisis, the state authorities are now planning to request the Planning Commission to shell out part of the deputy chairman's discretionary quota of 10 per cent, to build the necessary infrastructure for the state.
While presenting the state's annual budget in March, Chief Minister Pratapsing Rane had then said he anticipated receiving an additional Rs 300 million from the Planning Commission this year, pending a final decision. But Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha's new policy will probably help Goa now get around Rs 450 million.
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With the BJP-led central government accepting the Tenth Finance
Commission recommendations, disbursement of share from central taxes has been now been hiked to 29 per cent after including corporate tax
and customs duties in it, besides the arrears since January 1996.
Moreover, while Goa had anticipated around Rs 210 million from its share
of direct taxation measures, it will now get Rs 140 million from its arrears of two years besides Rs 160 million from the new policy towards share of central taxes.
The state budget had also anticipated a 15 per cent, which works out to Rs 90 million, from last year's central allocation of Rs 593.4 million. But now, the increase has jumped to Rs 150 million.
However, the additional amount of funds may not benefit any development plans in the state, which is badly lacking in infrastructure. This is because Rane has decided to implement Part B of the Fifth Pay Commission's recommendations during this year, giving in to the pressure from various employees' lobbies.
Despite a meagre population of 1.2 million, the state adminstration employees a whopping 42,000 employees, who have fast become a white elephant. The state Congress government has already implemented Part A of
the commission in toto, which pushed revenue expenditure up by 23 per
cent to Rs 130 crore.
By implementing Part B, the state government will incur an extra expense of Rs 120 million every year. The additional amount of funds from the Centre,
around Rs 150 million, would thus be used up mostly for this. Only Rs 30 million will be left for development work.
Budget '98
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