SHILLONG, Dec 28: Senior Congress leader Charles Pyngrope on Monday sought a discussion for bailing the state out of a “serious” financial crisis. He also advised the Conrad K. Sangma government to look at Singapore for ideas.
Pyngrope told The Shillong Times that COVID-19 caught everyone across the globe unawares but the state government should have gotten its act together a few months into the pandemic.
He said that he state’s expenditure has been far more than its income, taking a toll on the resources of Meghalaya
“It is high time we discussed with the think-tanks on how to raise the income of the state with help from the Centre, but first through our own initiative,” Pyngrope said, warning that time for a turnaround was fast running out.
“We need people who can advise the government on how to increase the revenue and what the mechanisms are for doing it,” he said.
Citing the case of Singapore, he said that the Southeast Asian country has an Economic Development Board whose members are experts from different fields. “We need a similar initiative here,” Pyngrope added.
The Congress veteran’s suggestion has come at a time when the state has been struggling with its finances with a shortfall of Rs 727 crore in the share of the Central taxes between April and October 2020.
The total budget estimate was Rs 3,000 crore for these seven months, but the state has received Rs 2,273 crore so far. Meghalaya is largely dependent on Central assistance.
The Centre had recently released the ninth instalment of Rs 6,000 crore for the states as back-to-back loans to meet the GST compensation shortfall.
Meghalaya’s additional borrowing of 0.50% of GSDP allowed is Rs 194 crore and the volume of funds raised through special window passed on to the states/UTs till December 28 was Rs 63.29 crore.