the goan I network
PANAJI
Independent Porvorim legislator Rohan Khaunte on Tuesday crunched numbers to point out discrepancies in figures mentioned by Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik during the customary start of the year address he delivered to the Legislative Assembly in January.
While speaking on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address moved by Glenn Ticlo, Khaunte said that the figures provided by the governor were “misleading”.
For example, Khaunte pointed to the governor only mentioning that the State’s per capita income was the highest in the country at over Rs 5 lakh per person, but conveniently left out figures related to the public debt and the debt per head, which he claimed stands at Rs 1.5 lakh per individual.”It is easy to show a high per capita income because there are a lot of rich people in Goa and the entire population of the State is taken as a whole. But it is on the debts that you can make out the real picture,” Khanute said, while slamming the government for not giving one clear figure on Goa’s collective debt.
Khaunte further pointed out the flaws in the governor’s speech, which spoke of an increase of 2% domestic and 4% international tourists to Goa.
“I’m surprised because the whole industry is talking about tourism decline in the State,” Khaunte said.
On GST collection, he said, the governor mentioned a collection of Rs 2,500 crore-plus up to December end. However, according to the information he had received, just Rs 1,600 crore were collected in Goa and even with a Rs 500 crore compensation received from the Center, it comes up to just Rs 2,100 crore.
“Officers need to be pulled up for giving errant figures like Rs 2,500 crore, and the Governor’s address has these misguiding figures,” Khaunte said.
On Capital expenditure and capital borrowing : The governor’s address said we have borrowed Rs 2,200 crores. But according to the LAQs, we have utilised Rs 678 crore of capital expenditure upto December 2019, the legislator said. “Where is the remaining Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,600 crore? This means that the government is taking loans only to pay back loans and interest,” he added.
Meanwhile, Khaunte slammed the government for not having any policies in place to take care of the economy and people of Goa. “The government organised Vibrant Goa, but where are the investments in Goa following that, I am waiting to see,” he said.
