MLA flags fiscal vulnerability, declining State revenue
GFP MLA Vijai Sardesai makes a point while speaking in the Assembly on Monday.
Photo Credits: Narayan Pissurlenkar
PANAJI
Goa Forward Party (GFP) MLA Vijai Sardesai on Monday raised serious concerns about Goa’s over-dependence on Central funds to meet its revenue and expenditure needs.
Participating in the discussion on the State Budget 2025-26, Sardesai pointed out that in the current budget the borrowings and other liabilities have gone down compared to last year, from 10.2% to 9.8% of total earnings; grant-in-aid from the Centre has come down from 6.2% to 5.4%; the State’s own non-tax revenue has also come down from 25.3% to 24.3%; and tax revenue from 38.8% to 38.7%.
“This makes the State financially vulnerable, as it depends more on funds controlled by the Central government,” Sardesai said.
The MLA said that though revenue composition appears stable, the figures reveal deeper concerns about the State’s fiscal autonomy, overdependence on external sources, and stagnation in internal resource mobilisation. “There is a continued overdependence on the Centre,” he added.
Sardesai said that the budget is a "scary" document, one that "does not face reality, one that shirks responsibilities towards the future of the State".
“This is because the CM does not acknowledge the debt trap we are falling into, and wants to continue to borrow and spend on unwanted schemes and projects,” he said. He charged that the CM is acting exactly like "an agent of the Central government and all its cronies".
"This budget is just another step in the grand plan to sell Goa and Goans and to ensure that Goa ends up as a colony of the Centre,” he said.
