Shillong, July 8: The Meghalaya planning board today discussed how the state government could "manage its finance well" despite reeling under a financial crunch.
The state planning board meeting, chaired by its chairman and former chief minister Salseng C. Marak at the main secretariat here, interacted with officials of the state finance and planning department to know the financial position of the state and working of NITI Aayog, besides implementation of central schemes in the state, including those under Article 275 (1).
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, board co-chairman John F. Kharshiing said the finance department in its PowerPoint presentation stated that the state government could manage its finance well despite lack of resources particularly after ban on coal mining by the NGT.
"From what we could understand, our government has been able to weather the storm of financial crunch," Kharshiing said.
He said finance department officials said the government managed by resorting to various austerity measures, including budgetary cuts of 20 per cent on non-plan expenditures.
Kharshiing said to understand more on issues the board would study in details the presentation. He said the board would also hold another review meeting with the officials of the state programme implementation department to understand how schemes and funds are implemented and utilised.
Kharshiing said the board would submit its recommendation to the government on how to better the resources of the state to tackle the financial crisis. Sharing the figures on the state's revenue and expenditure, Kharshiing said total expenditures of the state in 2014-2015 was Rs 7,427 crore.
In 2015-2016, the government spent Rs 7,617 crore of which Rs 3,004 crore was spent on salary, Rs 588 crore on pension and Rs 466 crore as interest on loans.
Kharshiing said the non-tax revenue has slashed in the past three years, from Rs 596 crore in 2013-2014 it came down to Rs 343 crore in 2014-2015 and last year it was Rs 228 crore. He, however, said the tax revenue saw a slight improvement from Rs 939 crore in 2014-2015 to Rs 1,058 crore in 2015-2016. The projected tax revenue for 2016-2017 is Rs 1,269 crore.
The board would call for a discussion on revenue being generated through the state excise department, especially in view of the closures of many liquor shops recently.
According to Kharshiing, three districts - East Khasi Hills, Ri Bhoi and East Jaintia Hills - were considered the most revenue-generating districts.
Revenue generated through excise was Rs 151 crore in 2014-2015, Rs 170 crore in 2015-2016. The revenue may come down during 2016-2017 because of closure of liquor shops, though it is pegged at Rs 220 crore, he said.
The board discussed the state and Centre's share for implementing central schemes in which the funding ratio is 90:10 between the Centre and the state. The ratio remained unchanged for some schemes categorised as "core schemes" while for "non-core schemes", the ratio is 80:10.
It discussed the implementation of central schemes under Article 271 (1). Stating that the article includes major sectors such as health, education, agriculture and allied, Kharshiing said the allocation of funds for 2016-2017 was only Rs 28.54 crore.
