Rupesh Samant

Panaji, Sep 4: Goa chief minister, Pramod Sawant on Tuesday ruled out the state was heading toward a debt trap due to shrinking revenue resources and economic meltdown.

The chief minister was reacted to statements in a section of media which had claimed that the state was extensively borrowing to meet its financial requirements.

Sawant said that though the major revenue resource has been stopped after the current stoppage of iron ore mining activity, the state government has been tapping other options to make up for the losses.

He said that the state’s borrowings have not exceeded the permissible limits.

“State government has been borrowing even in the past. It has been borrowing even twenty years back. There is a certain limit to borrowing, we are not exceeding it,” the chief minister said.

Sawant said that the state’s finances are stable despite the fact that Rs 3,500 crore are spent annually on repayment of loans which were borrowed in the past.

“The debt repayment costs of debts taken 10 years back are occupying a growing proportion of committed expenditure. The state of Goa has been maintaining the Consolidated Sinking Fund (CSF) and the Guarantee Redemption Fund (GRF) With the Reserve Bank of India as buffers for repayment of state debt liabilities,” he said.

The chief minister said that as on March 31, the corpus of CSF is Rs 603.54 crore and corpus of GRF is Rs 303.90 crore.

Sawant admitted that the state has been facing a challenge as far as revenue generation is concerned due to stoppage of mining activity. “But I am sure, we will make up for the losses through other sources of revenue generation,” he added.

The chief minister said that the people of the state are well aware about the impending difficulties and have 'accepted stringent fiscal measures taken in the state'.

Sawant said that the state is optimistic that the mining industry will resume during this fiscal and for the next financial year the state will be able to get large chunk of revenue from it.

Goa’s mining industry has come to a standstill since last year after Supreme Court quashed 88 leases.

Sawant said that the state government will not concede to the demands of a union of mining dependents which had asked for Rs one lac per person as immediate relief and monthly Rs 20,000 till the industry resumes.

“We cannot fulfil their demand, but we are working a way out to help those who have suffered due to closure of the mining industry,” he said.

“BJP has been supporting the mining dependents. I can say that the kind of financial assistance that was given during BJP tenure to mining dependents is historic and none of the state has given such help to their people. More than Rs 300 crore has been spent for mining dependents including one time settlement schemes for banks,” he added.