Uttar Pradesh managed to bring down fiscal deficit by 4.5 per cent in 2006-07 from the year- ago level but fiscal liabilities, still at an appalling 52 per cent of GSDP, are a risk to the state's health, the country's top auditor has warned.
Increase in revenue receipts led to a decrease in fiscal deficit by Rs 463 crore from Rs 10,078 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 9,615 crore in the year under review, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has said in its report for the year ended March 31, 2007.
However, the decline was mainly on account of a 49 per cent surge in central transfers that includes the union pool of taxes and duties (Rs 5,015 crore) and grants-in-aid from Government of India (Rs 2,493 crore) in 2006-07.
"Moreover, of the total increase of Rs 7,743 crore in the state's own resources, around 27 per cent was on the account of contra-entry of debt waiver booked as miscellaneous general receipts during the year," the CAG report said.
Besides, the revenue expenditure as a percentage to the total expenditure varied within a narrow range of 79-89 per cent during the period 2001-07, leaving inadequate resources for expansion of services and creation of assets as a result of which 42 per cent of fiscal liabilities of the state were still without the asset back-up during 2006-07, it added.
