SHILLONG: Meghalaya Government is now eyeing to get the state’s name deleted from the list of revenue-deficit states in the next five years.
Giving this indication here on Thursday, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma informed that there are only eleven states in the country which are not included in the category of revenue deficit.
The Chef Minister was reacting to the criticism of UDP where the party blamed MUA’s government’s financial mismanagement for the meager allocation of fund to the state by the 14th Finance Commission.
While stating that Meghalaya is a growing state, the Chief Minister said that the State Government wants to take Meghalaya to such a level from where the state would no longer have to seek the revenue grant from the Centre to reduce the revenue deficit.
“In 6-7 years, we plan that Meghalaya would be able to look after itself and contribute to the national growth,” Sangma said.
The Chief Minister also clarified that Meghalaya’s own revenue receipt under the 13th Finance Commission was projected at Rs 14,160 crore whereas others such as Mizoram had only Rs 3636 crore and Manipur Rs 6135 crore.
According to Sangma , the debts of Meghalaya reflected in terms of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) ratio is 26.69 % whereas Manipur has 52.1 %, and Mizoram has 59.6 %.
Though Meghalaya Government had sought Rs 50000 crore from the 14th Finance Commission, the Chief Minister informed Meghalaya would finally get Rs 27,270 crore.
Sangma also added that in the 13th Finance Commission, Meghalaya had .21% of shares of taxes available to be transferred to the state but under the 14th Finance Commission it has gone to upto .61 percent whereas other state like Tripura has .81 percent but now it has come to. 69 per cent.
“The percentage of share of taxes for Meghalaya has gone up because of the good performance of the state,” Sangma claimed .
He also said that tax revenue of state which was 3.2 in terms of GSDP in 2008-09 has gone up to 5 per cent now.
