SHILLONG, March 10: A day after Chief Minister Conrad Sangma unveiled the state Budget 2022-2023 contending that it focuses on gender, youth, and sustainable development goals, the Meghalaya Pradesh Youth Congress has hit out at the CM and the government, stating that the budget lacks vision and initiatives to overcome the crisis precipitated by COVID-19 pandemic.
“It (budget) fails to address the issues of unemployment, employment generation and in providing sustainable opportunities for the people. We also do not see much initiatives in bettering health and living conditions of the people,” MPYC secretary, Manuel Badwar, told reporters.
He observed that the CM highlighted many of his achievements. However, the fundamental macroeconomics of the state raises many red flags, he said, adding that the fiscal deficit itself has gone up to Rs 1,849 crore from Rs 1,570 crore in the previous fiscal.
According to Badwar, the focus of the government is on borrowings rather than internal generation of funds, and as a result, just the interest payment has gone up to Rs 110 crore which is also accompanied by the loan repayment of Rs 946 crore.
“These two items themselves contribute to a large extent of our deficit. There seems to be a trend that the loans procured are from more expensive sources like HUDCO (Rs 800 crore) 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 2,632 crore this year as compared to Rs 2,244 crore last year, will definitely impact the financial stability of the state in the years to come,” the MPYC secretary said.
He also observed that the revenue expenses have also increased to Rs 15,376 crore (10 per cent year-on-year jump) when compared to the revenue received which is at Rs 16,035 crore (5 per cent year-on-year jump).
“Our revenue receipt has not gone up primarily because of the inability to improve our tax collection. As an example, mining and quarry itself saw a huge slump where it contributed to less than 1 per cent of our state GSDP (in spite of seeing many coal laden trucks plying on the roads everyday) from the hay-days when it used to contribute nearly 9-10 per cent. We seem to be spending more on festivities and other soft items which do not translate to capital infrastructure building,” he said.
On the contrary, he added, capital expenditure has gone down from Rs 3,647 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 3,505 crore in 2022-23.
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 to capital expenditure, Badwar said.
He said it is a well-known fact that increased capital expenditure leads to asset and job creation, and infrastructure development, thereby propelling an economy in its growth trajectory.
The youth will be the ones that will suffer the most in the years due to lack of opportunities, he argued.
“This clearly indicates that chief minister’s vision to be amongst the top 10 states in 10 years in terms of per capita income and SDG rankings is nothing but a brainwash to the public,” he said.
The MPYC secretary said that this also affects the youths of the state, who are desperately in need of jobs, as decreased capital expenditure translates to reduced job creation.
While increasing revenue expenditure gives immediate gratification and helps push the popularity of the chief minister, it has damaging effect on the state’s economy in the long run, he said.
Picking holes in the initiatives spoken of by the CM in his address on Wednesday, the youth Congress secretary said, “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,” he said.
Pointing at the Inter-State Bus Terminus inaugurated with much fanfare, he questioned the government on the actual business end of it. “How many buses have actually moved through those gates?” Badwar said.