PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said that Goa is among a few States in the country whose annual budget has consistently been revenue surplus since the Covid pandemic hit in 2020.
Replying to the general discussion on the State's 2024-25 budget which he had presented in March, Sawant refuted allegations against his government's fiscal imprudence and reckless borrowing.
Sawant said since 2021-22, his government has taken loans far below the permissible limits set by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act in each financial year.
"In the current financial year, we are permitted to avail loans of up to Rs 3,300 crore limit as per the FRBM Act. However, with one quarter already gone, we haven't borrowed even one rupee," Sawant said.
He also said, that his government had resorted to tweaking the State's debt servicing strategy by availing low-cost loans from financiers like Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD) and restructuring past loans.
"This strategy alone saved us Rs 50 crore last year," Sawant said, adding that the loan restructuring and re-payment adjustments in managing the public debt is a continuous process.
Action Taken Report
Referring to allegations made by MLAs from the Opposition benches that several claims in the budget were unrealistic (fotashi), Sawant said the action taken report accounted for every budget proposal and documented the progress achieved on each front in the previous year.
He said, his budget for the current year lays emphasis on rural development and proposes the establishment of a Veterinary College to complement the Government Agriculture College set up at Ella last year.
Khelo Goa Centres
in all talukas
The chief minister said, with a view to boost sports infrastructure, the budget proposes to set up a "khelo Goa" centre on the lines of the 'Khelo India' programme in each taluka.
"It is not practical to set up sports infrastructure in every village but we have decided to establish these centres at least at the taluka level.
NEP implementation
progressing
The chief minister said the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) is going on well.
"We have introduced it at the foundation level (kindergarten), at secondary level (class IX) and in higher education in undergraduate colleges," Sawant said, adding that the progress is satisfactory.
He said, the education department had taken stakeholders including managements of institutions on board and consultations were held to iron out the issues and problems forecast in the implementation.
He also said that following the consultations most of the issues were resolved and brushed aside criticism from the Opposition that the government had hurriedly imposed the NEP in the State without preparations.
Earlier, Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao, and other legislators from the Opposition benches, including Congress' Carlos Alvares Ferreira and both the AAP MLAs -- Cruz Silva and Venzy Viegas -- had criticised the government's move to insist on implementing the NEP for schools without being prepared for it.
Meanwhile, Sawant also listed a number of budget proposals including upgradation of some of the urban and rural health centres and the provision of Rs 800 crore for improvement of 1,000 kilometres of roads across Goa.
He concluded his nearly hour-long speech with a reference to BJP's election slogans at the recently concluded Lok Sabha election thus: "Even if '400 paar' didn't happen, we are certainly on course for 'Viksit Bharat 2047'."
