PANAJI
Despite a jump in revenue surplus, Goa’s gross fiscal deficit increased by more than 785 per cent in the last two decades, since 2004-05, as the State’s outstanding debt stood at Rs 34,758 crore by end of March 2024.
To meet its expenditure on social welfare schemes and infrastructure development, the State has relied on borrowings that have pushed Goa's outstanding liabilities from Rs 4,417 crore in 2005 to Rs 31,758 crore in 2023 and further to Rs 34,758 crore by end of financial year 2023-24.
According to the information tabled in the Lok Sabha by the Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, the State debt amounted to about 38.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). He said that the data is based on the Reserve Bank of India’s report titled ‘State Finances: A study of Budgets of 2023-24’.
As per the data available in the Report, the ratio of interest payment to total outstanding liabilities of State Governments for the year 2023-24 (BE) ranges from 4.21 per cent to 7.01 per cent.
During 2018-23, outstanding debt of the State Government increased from 28.41 to 31.57 per cent of GDP, breaching the target of 25 per cent of GSDP set by the GFRBM (First Amendment) Act, 2014.
As per the CAG report 2023, tabled by Goa government during the monsoon session, Goa’s revenue surplus increased from Rs 59 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 2,400 crore in 2022-23.
For the current financial year, till October end, State has borrowed almost 30 per cent of its full-year target, through bonds alone, to fund the revenue gap to boost economic and development growth. As on September 30, the Government raised a total of Rs 1000 crore through auction of government securities.
This is despite the fact that the State managed to generate over 11,000 crore revenue during the six months excluding tax devolution funds received from the Centre to the tune of Rs 1,220 crore in two instalments released in June and October.
