Leader of the Opposition Digambar Kamat has warned against the State acting on the Centre's advice to resort to borrowing from the RBI to meet the GST shortfall and balance government finances.
He asked Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to reject both options proffered by Union Finance Ministry to offset the compensation shortfall, particularly the leeway given to the State to borrow.
"I want to warn the Chief Minister who also holds the finance portfolio to outrightly reject the twin options given by the central government to bridge the GST compensation gap. It is the legal and moral responsibility of the Centre to compensate the States for the GST revenue shortfall," Kamat said in a statement issued on Thursday.
Kamat who led the State as Chief Minister for a full five-year term in 2007-12 also slammed the Centre for abdicating its "moral and legal" obligation to compensate States for the GST revenue shortfalls.
He criticised the Central leadership for "failing completely" to manage the pandemic response as well as the economy.
"The central government has completely failed in management of the Covid pandemic as well as the economy of the country. Despite the warnings from our leader Rahul Gandhi of a tsunami hitting the nation if timely action is not initiated to boost the economy, the BJP Government preferred to continue with its ignorant approach and chose to celebrate with banging of thalis and lighting of diyas, which has now resulted in crashing of economy," Kamat said.
Dwelling on the option to borrow, Kamat said, the State must put the onus of bearing the financial burden of additional borrowing on the Centre.
"The already bankrupt Goa government will not be able to bear the burden of interest on new borrowings for the Centre's fault," Kamat said and demanded that Sawant make public a white paper on the State's finances.
