Shillong, March 10: The Youth Congress reacted to annual budget presented by the Chief Minister Mr. Conrad K Sangma in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly for the financial year 2022-2023 which the congress term the budget as lack of vision in this current crisis that has been brought about by Covid.
The Congress pointed out that the budget fails to address the issues of unemployment, issued employment generation and in providing sustainable opportunities for the people and they do not see much initiates in bettering health and living conditions of the people.
The Chief Minister mainly highlighted of his achievements, however the fundamental macro economics 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 the deficit.
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 and 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.
The Congress mention that the revenue expenses also 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 they can notice that a lot more is being spent on establishment purposes which is non-productive in nature.
The revenue receipt has not gone up primarily because of the inability to improve our tax collection and as an example mining and quarry itself saw a huge slump where it contributed to less than 1% of our state GSDP inspite of seeing many coal laden trucks plying on the roads everyday from the hay-days when it used to contribute nearly 9-10%.
On the contrary, Capital Expenditure has gone down from Rs. 3647 crore in 2021-22 to Rs.3505 crore in 2022-23. In fact, 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.
This clearly indicates 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.
This is also damaging to the youths of the state who are desperately in need of job as decreased capital expenditure translates to reduced job creation. While increasing revenue expenditure gives immediate gratification and helps push the popularity of the Hon’ble Chief Minister, but it is damaging to the state economy in the long run.
While the CM in major part of his address spoke about various initiatives, which were initiated in the are actually central initiatives, even in those initiatives, we are much short of the expected numbers.
Practically, fund allocation for tourism infrastructure has not been matched with the hype. Simple examples like roads leading to tourist destinations are in such dilapidated forms which are obvious indicators of the same. We request the press to also go and cover and do journalistic justice for this.
The 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, Another example: the Shillong-Delhi flight had completed only 19 round trips and out of which 40% 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.
Allocation in medical and public health for development expenditure has also decreased. One would expect that this allocation would increase because Meghalaya fares very poorly on crucial health indices like infant mortality rate.There has also been a statement on direct job creation of 1500 in the Shillong technology park.
As per the budget statement by the CM, the office spaces have exceeded capacity, but who have they allocated these spaces to, How were the eligible tech companies shortlisted, At what rate and at what terms and conditions, If these jobs are directly given by the government as stated by the CM, they have not seen any budget allocation.
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. 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. The congress observed that the budget is not well stitched. At the end, it’s going to add more burden to the people of the state, without addressing the fundamental core issues that the state desperately needs.
