Odisha’s loan burden to touch Rs 1.5 lakh cr in five years !
Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Mar 10:
The 14th Finance Commission has estimated that the loan burden of Odisha would be three times more in the next five years.
Based on its assessment on the possible income and expenditure of the state, the Commission has estimated that the loan burden of the state would touch about Rs 1.5 lakh crore in the next five years.
The Commission, in its report, has stated that the loan burden of Odisha would cross Rs 1.42 lakh crore by 2019-20 which would be 22.4 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with a per capita burden of over Rs 33,000.
The present loan burden of the state is Rs 46,746 crore, which is 15.04 percent of its GDP. This, according to the estimate of the Commission, would touch Rs 56,640 crore by the end of 2015-16 fiscal.
The state government, as per its estimate, has told the 14th Finance Commission that the GDP of the state, which is Rs 3.10 lakh crore at present, would touch Rs 6,35,135 crore by 2019-20 with a fiscal growth rate of 14.19 percent.
However, the Commission has estimated that the state’s own revenue receipt would be around Rs 64,000 crore by 2019-20 while its revenue expenditure would cross Rs 94,000 crore.
Going by the projected trends, the loan burden of Odisha would touch Rs 83,000 crore in 2016-17, Rs one lakh crore in Rs 2017-18 and would cross Rs 1.20 lakh crore in 2018-19, the reports said.
State Finance minister Pradip Amat, in his statement during the budget session of the State Assembly, had said that the state government would incur loans of Rs 41,600 crore in the next three years of which the market borrowing would be Rs 23,000 crore.
The actual revenue growth has fallen short of the target set by the state government by as much as 36 percent.
The state government, which had targeted Rs 6,500 crore revenue collection from mining during the 2014-15 fiscal, has collected only Rs 3,531 crore by January this year. Realising that it is impossible get the remaining amount in the next two months, the government has slashed its non-tax revenue collection target by Rs 400 core in the 2014-15 fiscal.
Considering the trend, there is little hope of any substantial growth in mining revenue in the 2015-16 fiscal.
Although the state government has estimated that non-tax revenue collection would be 20 percent more (Rs 9013 crore) during 2015-16. The Commission, however, believes this is an unrealistic target and the government would be forced to go for more borrowing to meet its revenue expenditure.
The Commission has stated that the fiscal deficit of the state would be over Rs 22,000 crore by 2019-20 which will force the government to borrow more.
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