The spurt in expenses on salaries, pension and interest cost is hurting the ability of states to put aside sufficient funds for socio-economic programmes and capital expenditure.
On an average, the three components -- salaries, pension and interest payouts make up 40 per cent of a state's total expenditure. A study by CARE Ratings reveals there are 12 states where the spend on these three components has surpassed 40.5 per cent of overall expenditure. This has left the states with a shrinking expense pool for other critical areas.
In Himachal Pradesh, the share of committed expenditure is the highest, at