The State Government on Monday issued a white paper on economic condition of Jharkhand a day ahead of Soren Government going to present State annual Budget. As alleged by Chief Minister Hemant Soren that the previous Raghubar Das Government’s poor fiscal management has emptied the State coffers, the white paper present the actual financial condition of State. The white paper has touched several parameters of State financial condition with State growth rate dipping down to 6.2 per cent.
The white paper mentions that the State growth rate from 2015-16 to 2018-2019 was 5.7 per cent, while the growth rate of state in 2014-15 was 12.05 per cent. Through the white paper, the Soren Government highlights that while on one hand previous Government had done little on improving tax collection, unplanned expenditure had resulted in loss to state exchequer.
In last five year, there has been drop of 10 per cent in tax collection. Sector wise from 2016-17 to 2017-18 there has been drop of 6.5 per cent in commercial taxes, 12.6 per cent in excise tax, 22.7 percent in registration and 35.1 percent in revenue and land reforms. The State Government though the white paper mentions that the State Government incurred revenue loss of Rs 1,000 crore due to state government decision to sell liquor from state government outlets.
The white paper also mentions that there is huge difference in actual expenditure and estimated expenditure and in 2018-19 the difference was Rs 10,437.47 crore. The report also mentions that in last five years the loan borrowing of state government has increased. Under Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY), the state government has borrowed Rs 5,534 crore from Central Government. The loan was to be given to Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for strengthening infrastructure facilities of power company, but even after this the power scenario has not improved while at the same time loan burden went up to Rs 21,000 crore.
Similarly in agriculture sector the previous Government had launched many schemes for farmers in State, but there was no visible increase in agricultural productivity under the Chief Minister Krishi Aashirwad Yojana. The plan was described as a burden of high revenue expenditure on the State Government.
As per the report individual loan burden has also gone up in last five years. In 2014-15the per capita loan was Rs 12,000 which in 2018-19 went up to Rs 22,000 and it is estimated that this loan burden will go to Rs 24,000 by 2019-20.
The white paper mentions that with the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) most of indirect commercial taxes has been abolished resulting in loss to state government exchequer, moreover, centre too has failed to compensate the GST loss in time.
At the meeting of Eastern Regional Council, it came to fore that Jharkhand is behind other Eastern states in banking sector.
Public sector banks are more interested in accepting deposits, but at the same time they are reluctant in giving credit.
The State Government while presenting the white paper wants to highlights the financial mismanagement of Raghubar Das Government, the BJP has termed the white paper as Government failure to meet people’s expectations.