Agartala, May 13: Growing debt, sharply rising liability in non-plan expenses and non-receipt of dues from the Centre have triggered a major crisis for the cash-strapped government of Tripura. The state government will find it difficult to meet expenses on salary and pension bills. A senior official in the finance department said the government had passed a budget of Rs 2991.84 crore with an uncovered deficit of Rs 68 crore.
“We expected that payment of outstanding dues from the award of the 11th Finance Commission and fresh grants on non-plan head from the 12th Finance Commission would help us wipe out the deficit,” a source said.
However, neither the dues from the 11th Finance Commission were received by the government nor fresh sanction from the 12th Finance Commission.
In order to meet expenses for the first three months of the financial year 2004-05 the state government had passed a vote-on-account of Rs 998 crore.
But with non-receipt of estimated dues from the Centre and the burden of expenses on salary and pension heads, the government is in a desperate situation now.
Finance minister Badal Chowdhury said while implementing “mid-term fiscal reforms” the 11th Finance Commission had stipulated that non-implementation of the reforms would lead to deduction at source of 15 per cent of the revenue gap grant annually.
“We fully complied with the reform policy by annually mobilising five per cent additional resources through increased taxation and reduction in non-plan expenses.
“But the Union finance ministry is witholding Rs 225 crore,” Chowdhury said.
He said chief minister Manik Sarkar had met the Union finance minister in December last year and in May this year and requested him to release the funds.
In spite of promises made by outgoing Union finance minister Jaswant Singh, the fund is yet to be released.
“It is surprising that the Union finance ministry is now offering us Rs 50 crore as loan at 7 per cent interest, which we have refused,” Chowdhury said.
He also pointed out that the Centre was making discriminatory policies.
“Despite non-compliance with the directive to implement a reforms programme, Mizoram has received Rs 50 crore more while Nagaland has been given an extra amount of Rs 200 crore,” he said.