Infrastructure building pushes Jharkhand into debts

Ranchi -- In the process of building its infrastructure, Jharkhand has ran into a massive debt of Rs.160 billion and pays Rs.14 billion as interest for the same.

Carved out of Bihar in November 2000, the state presented its first budget in 2001-02. In the first financial year, the state went into a total debt of Rs.75.19 billion and paid Rs.5.68 billion as interest.

In the current financial year, the debt has shot up to Rs.160 billion and the state is paying Rs.14 billion as interest.

"The loans were needed for the development of different sectors like roads, electricity, health and others since the state was new and there was no infrastructure. Because of these loans, the debts kept climbing," said a senior official.

The official, however, admitted that the loans were not properly used for the purpose they were taken. "It is a fact that financial mismanagement is on the extreme in the state. The money is kept in banks and the budget money is not spent on time," he said.

The poor expenditure of money could be known from the fact that in the current financial year only Rs.12 billion has been spent against the total plan outlay of Rs.65 billion.

Although tax collection is very poor in the state, privatising the auction of liquor cause has come up as a sort of little respite, the official said.

"Considering the poor tax collection, the excise department opted to privatise the auction of liquor shops. And this helped the state in increasing the revenue," said an official of the finance department.

Before privatising liquor shops, the state was earning Rs.900 million per annum from excise duty. It is now earning Rs.1.35 billion per annum from the same.

The finance department officials hope the implementation of Value Added Tax (VAT) will help the state in generating 30 percent more revenue this year.