SHILLONG, March 9: Shortly after Chief Minister Conrad Sangma presented the budget estimates for 2022-23 in the Assembly on Wednesday, Opposition leader and former CM, Mukul Sangma slammed the MDA government for presenting a lacklustre budget, saying that the government of the day has tried to use the maximum space available for borrowings which will have tremendous ramifications in future.
The budget is an attempt by the government to make up for the last four years of its inactivity and the lack of governance, he said.
Mukul said the Union government recently amended the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003, allowing states to borrow up to 4.5% of their Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) instead of 3% provided earlier.
“The government has taken full advantage of the space available for borrowing and we are worried over kind of resultant ramifications it will have,” he said, adding that the government will leave behind a burden of repayment for the future government.
Recalling that the previous government had always maintained the budget deficit to less than 3% of the GSDP, Mukul said the budget is a ‘camouflage’ as people will not be able to understand how much money is coming in for central schemes and from where the money is coming.
