Porvorim: The opposition benches on Tuesday accused State government of fudging the figures on borrowings to hide the financial misappropriation by Pramod Sawant-led government.
While issue of the financial situation of the state was raised on the floor of the House by opposition benches led by Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat and Goa Forward Party MLA Vijai Sardesai, the Speaker had to wind up the discussion due to the lack of time during the Question hour.
GFP MLA Jayesh Salgaonkar had tabled the question about financial situation of the state, which was replied by chief minister Pramod Sawant through written answer. But the discussion could not take place as the question hour got over.
Addressing a press conference during lunch break, Kamat said that the state government has “fudged the figures on its financial situation.”
“The government has given different answers to same question on financial situation to various MLAs,” he said.
Pointing out to one of the written answer, the former chief minister said that the borrowings of the state were pegged at Rs 20,412 crore during fiscal 2018-19, which has now gone up to Rs 24,928.23 crore.
Kamat said that the government records indicate that the state is revenue surplus, but still is on borrowing spree.
“The revenue receipts for the FY 2019-20 are Rs 8,475.01 crore while revenue expenditure is Rs 8099.85 crore. There is revenue surplus of Rs 375.16 crore. If there is surplus then why is government borrowing,” he questioned.
Sardesai said that government is hiding the financial misappropriation by giving wrong figures.
Pointing out to the discussion on Citizenship Amendment Act held on the floor of the House on Monday, Sardesai said “BJP is trying to divert economic issues and taking up emotive issues.”
The former deputy chief minister said that Rs 21,000 crore is total debt of the state till date. “For the current year Rs 859.94 crores has been borrowed for capital expenditure is used to pay salaries of the government servants,” he said.
“This is blatantly illegal, we wanted to expose this, had we got an opportunity,” he said.
Sardesai said that bills worth Rs 767 crore of various contractors are pending with the government, while coffer does not have enough funds.
