PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday held the first extensive meeting with officials of the Finance Department where some measures taken to lower the cost of servicing Goa's debts were reviewed.
In a series of tweets from the official handle of the Chief Minister's Office, it was informed that Sawant appreciated the efforts of officials of the finance department in availing low interest rate credit from NABARD for various health, sewerage, waste management and water supply projects.
The amount drawn was to the extent of Rs 500 crore at 2.75% while in previous years it was just Rs 60 crore.
Earlier this week, Sawant had made an impromptu visit to Delhi where he is said to have discussed with some Union ministers measures to enhance the fund flow through existing schemes from the Centre to the State. A fund crunch faced by the State exchequer was reportedly the prime reason for the Delhi visit.
In Thursday's meeting with the finance officials, Sawant appreciated that all loans were restructured and brought to a level of interest costs of an average 8% and under, particularly for all government bodies and Corporations.
Another tweet from the @goacm handle on the micro-blogging site said, SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India) had agreed in-principle to fund under its 'cluster development fund' up to Rs 1,000 crore for Goa.
Making available immediate liquidity through the RXIL portal's discounting system and thus clearing dues of over Rs 500 crore was another measure adopted by the finance department officials which found appreciation from the Chief Minister at the review meeting.
"The CM also emphasized on revenue generation measures, curtailing wasteful expenditure and utilization of unused funds lying for various purposes so benefit reaches the common man," said another tweet from the @goacm Twitter handle.
