CAG REPORT
PANAJI
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has revealed that the Goa government’s outstanding debt by March 2023 was Rs 31,104 crore, significantly higher than Rs 30,304 crore previously reported in the Finance Accounts.
This discrepancy is attributed to off-budget borrowings (OBB) amounting to Rs 800 crore for the fiscal year 2022-23. Consequently, the ratio of total outstanding debt to Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) ratio, initially reported as 31.57 per cent, was understated by 0.88 per cent, adjusting to 32.45 per cent when OBB is factored in.
The report further observed that from 2018-19 to 2022-23, Goa recorded a revenue surplus in three years “ Rs 55 crore in 2018-19, Rs 59 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 2,400 crore in 2022-23. The revenue deficits were Rs 325 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 1,653 crore in 2020-21.
The report acknowledged that the revenue receipts for 2020-21 were adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which contributed to the increase in the revenue deficit that year. The State government spent Rs 3,425 crore on capital account.
The State government allocated Rs 3,425 crore to capital expenditure, which constituted 19 per cent of the total expenditure for 2022-23. This capital expenditure exceeded public borrowings of Rs 2,576 crore, providing more fiscal space for capital spending compared to the previous four years with fiscal deficit decreasing to Rs 1,027 crore (1.13 per cent of GSDP) in 2022-23 from Rs 1,792 crore (2.49 per cent GSDP) in 2018-19.
Committed expenditure “ comprising interest payments, salaries, wages, and pensions “ that represents the largest share accounted for 49 per cent of revenue expenditure in 2018-19 and 52 per cent in 2022-23. Committed expenditure rose from Rs 5,458 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 7,764 crore in 2022-23. Inflexible expenditure, as a percentage of revenue expenditure, decreased slightly from 3.67 per cent in 2018-19 to 3.58 per cent in 2022-23, while its absolute value increased from Rs 407 crore to Rs 533 crore.
