Shillong, Sept 4: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and his team from the finance department on Wednesday clarified that the growth rate of GSDP for 2022-23 over 2021-22 is 15.6 percent and not 10.09 percent as stated by the CAG.
According to them, the CAG numbers for 2022- 2023 got finalised in June 2024 while the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI)gave final numbers of 2021-22 in August.
They also clarified that fiscal deficit for the state based on CAG numbers was 6.14 percent in 2018-19 whereas it was 6.55 percent in 2023. However, in the revised MoSPI’s GSDP numbers, fiscal deficit without CAPEX (capital expenditure) was 6.3 per cent in 2018-19 and 3.75 percent in 2022-23 which is under the limits set by the Centre.
The government said the state falling into debt trap does not arise as debt to GSDP ratio is close to Centre’s prescribed limit of 28 percent and is on a downward trend.
According to the finance department, the capital expenditure has doubled from.Rs 1903 in 2018-19 to Rs 3362 in 2022-23 and this indicates that the debt has been effectively utilised.
