Orissa had an outstanding debt of Rs Rs 36366.01 crore by the end of January 2010.
While this figure was Rs 9219 crore in 1995-96, it increased to Rs 18,100 crore in 1999-2000 and Rs 21,001.9 crore in 2000-01, said the finance minister, Prafulla Chandra Ghadai while replying to a query on outstanding debt of the state in the assembly.
He said, the government is incurring loans to meet various developmental needs. However, the debt stock is sustainable and within the permissible limit, he added.
The Twelfth Finance Commission (TFC) has recommended that the interest payment be limited to within 15 percent of the revenue receipts. The state has already achieved this target with the interest outgo being 11.74 percent of the total revenue receipt by the end of 2008-09.
TFC also recommended that the Debt-Gross State Domestic Ratio (GSDP) ratio should be within 28 percent. This benchmark has been achieved with the ratio standing at 27.27 percent in 2008-09.
Ghadai said, for commendable fiscal performance Orissa has been getting Rs 381.9 crore debt relief from 2005-06 onwards.
More From This Section
Stating that some loans like those from the National Small Savings Scheme (NSSS), Government Provident Fund (GPF) are obligatory in nature, he said, the state is mostly sourcing its loans from the Government o India (GoI), open market borrowing, Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) among others.
Though the government intended to raise Rs 1890 crore loan from open market in 2009-10, it hasn’t gone for it yet. Interestingly, the state government has not resorted to open market borrowings for last four years. Due to various measures taken by the government to augment revenue generation and downsize the non-plan expenditure, the debt burden is on the decline, Ghadai asserted.
While the net addition to the debt stock was Rs 3832.77crore in 2003-04, this declined to Rs 793 crore in 2006-07. There was a net decline of debt by Rs 937 crore in 2007-08 while the net addition to the debt stock was only Rs 118.93 crore in 2008-09.
He refuted allegations that the state government is incurring loans even as it is not filling up the vacancies and said, the finance department has approved the appointment of 1.5 lakh employees during last 10 years.