Meghalaya seeks Rs 82,815 crore from Finance Commission

SHILLONG: The Meghalaya government on Tuesday projected a requirement of Rs 82,815 crore before the 15th Finance Commission for consideration.
The requirement was placed before the Commission, headed by its chairman NK Singh by chief minister Conrad K Sangma during a meeting here.
The state portrayed Rs 62,870 crore pre-devolution revenue gap, Rs 15,609 crore grants-in aid for intervention in critical sectors, Rs 300 crore grants-in aid for SPSUs, Rs 2469 crore grants-in aid for the upgradation of standard administration and Rs 1567 crore grants-in aid for local bodies, including the three autonomous tribal district councils.
"The Commission promised to look into all the state's requests, especially those that would have growth multiplier effect," an official said.
The Finance Commission noted that the dependence of the Meghalaya government on the Centre is high as 80% of its total revenue receipts (TRR) come from the Centre.
"Meghalaya had Debt/GSDP ratio of 33.19% in 2016-17 and 31.76% in 2017-18. This is also higher than the average debt of other northeast and hill states i.e. 29.32% in 2016-1," the Commission observed.
The Commission also noted that in 2014, a ban was imposed on coal mining by NGT, which has had an impact on GSDP and revenue. "As mining has huge forward and backward linkages with other economic activities, the real GSDP declined in 2014-15 by 2.1%," the Commission observed, adding that this had an impact on employment and an increase in the crime rate was also observed.
The cash deposit ratio in Meghalaya has been only 35-40% over the last 10 years while that of the country is 60%, the Commission pointed out.
The Commission chairman spoke on the macro-economic challenges of the state, stressing on the requirement of fiscal and debt consolidation.
He expressed concern over the state's nominal GSDP trend growth which is much lower than the country's and spoke on the need for a focused and aggressive strategy for attracting private investment in the tourism and allied sector.