Once an exemplar of financial soundness, Maharashtra now has the dubious distinction of being the most debt-ridden state in the country.
The debt burden, as on March 31, 2012, has crossed the Rs 2,530.85 billion (or Rs 2.53 lakh crore) mark. Maharashtra is followed by Uttar Pradesh, which has a total debt burden of Rs 2,445.1 billion, West Bengal Rs 2,115.0 billion, Andhra Pradesh Rs 1,538 billion, Tamil Nadu Rs 1,325 billion and Karnataka Rs 1,017 billion. A bureaucrat felt it was high time the state government took immediate measures to reduce its massive expenditure on the salaries of 20 lakh-odd employees (Rs 48,000 crore), pension (Rs 1,10,00 crore) and interest on loans (Rs 1,8000 crore)
Significantly, senior Congress and NCP cabinet members have always blamed the five year Sena-BJP rule between 1995 and 1999 for the mounting state debt. The debt burden in 1995 was Rs 21,000 crore, which increased to Rs 44,200 crore in a brief span of four years. In 1999, when the Sena-BJP government was dislodged and the Congress-led Democratic Front government took over, the then finance minister Jayant Patil presented a comprehensive white paper on the state’s economy. He, too, blamed the erstwhile Sena-BJP government for the financial mess and drafted an ambitious recovery plan, giving assurances that drastic measures would be taken to wind up loss-making corporations and reduce expenditure on establishment. Now 13 years later, it appears that instead of taking corrective measures, the policies and plans drafted by the Congress-NCP government have resulted in the highest-ever debt burden.
No comments:
Post a Comment