Shillong, Dec 1: Congress state president Vincent Pala has pointed out that the NPP-led government is taking loans amounting to 37% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), the highest in the country.
Loans are being misused, the government ministers and contractors are benefiting at the expense of the public.
The per capita loan burden stands at Rs 76,000 per citizen, with the state having a loan of Rs 76,000 crore and over one lakh crore from central loans.
He said the government’s excessive borrowing is pushing Meghalaya towards a debt trap.
“The finance of the NPP… the loan they are taking is almost 37 percent of the GSDP, which is the highest in the country,” Pala said, adding that the national average is around 28%.
He said state’s internal revenue collection is barely Rs 4000 crore, while the contribution from central taxes is around Rs 9000 forcing the government to rely heavily on loans.
Pala alleged that the government is neglecting crucial sectors like education and employment, while misusing loans for personal gains. “The biggest failure is that where they take the loan and where they take the money and why people are becoming poorer and poorer,” he said.
The Congress leader warned that the government’s actions may lead to a debt trap, citing warnings from the Auditor General and NITI Aayog. “Meghalaya is almost going towards a debt trap… They don’t tell the truth to the public about the debt trap,” Pala said.
Pala urged the people of Meghalaya to take note of the government’s financial mismanagement, stating that the per capita loan burden stands at Rs 76,000 per citizen.
Pala has alleged that the NPP-led government is failing to generate revenue due to high leakage from royalty, excise, and other sources, forcing it to take excessive loans.
“The leakage of revenue is very high… That is why we cannot generate and they are bound to take loan,” Pala said. He warned that loans taken in dollars will become increasingly burdensome due to currency fluctuations.
“They mostly invest these loans on roads and who are the contractors? They are only the people who are in the government and mainly the ministers are the contractors themselves. There is no distribution of money to the public that is why the public are very poor and loan which they are supposed to build for infrastructure for example the loan they are taking at high interest rate they are supposed to build road and the road was supposed to last for 10 years but here we have to repair the roads two times in a year so it has become more and more burden,” he said.
