SHILLONG: In its twomonth long fight against COVID-19 pandemic Meghalaya government has spent Rs 115.10 crore, despite a sharp decline in revenue collection. Replying to the zero hour notice brought by Congress MLA, Process T. Sawkmie on Thursday, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said that the state government had allocated Rs 57.08 crore to the Health and Family Welfare department to improve the health care facilities in the state. Sawkmie said the government should explore ways and means to provide financial package to per Rs 12.13 crore has come from the Central resources to improve the health care infrastructure in the state.
He further informed that the state government had spent an amount of Rs 2 crore for providing ration and other support to the 10,000 people who are under quarantine. In addition, an amount of Rs 27.11 crore has been spent to provide financial assistance of Rs 2100 to 1,81,491 people under the Chief Minister Relief Against Wage Loss Scheme. An amount of Rs 2.77 crore was also spent to provide one-time special assistance of Rs 3000 to the 9224 citizens including students who are stranded in various parts of the country. The chief minister said that the state government also provided financial assistance of Rs 3000 to construction workers registered with the government.
Earlier, the chief minister said that the COVID-19 pandemic and the imposition of lockdown to contain its spread, has adversely affected the economy of the country as a whole with a corresponding impact on the revenue collection of both the Central and state governments.
He informed that while the total state resources, tax and non-tax, collected in April 2019 was Rs 207.61 crore, the revenue collected in April 2020 was merely Rs 76.40 crore, a fall of Rs 131.21 crore in monthly revenue collection. Further, the releases from the Centre have also been lesser than expected and while the budgetary estimate for monthly tax devolution was Rs 428 crore, the state had only received Rs 352 crore in April, a shortfall of Rs 76 crore. “At a time when the revenues for the state and devolution from Centre are falling, the expenditure due to COVID19 has increased, as already explained, by Rs. 115 crore. More expenditure on health infrastructure, quarantine facilities and relief measures will have to be borne in the coming months. Further, given the uncertainty around COVID, the government is being prudent in managing its finances, as committed expenditures including on salaries, pensions and interest payments will have to be incurred,” the chief minister added.