NPCC blames DAN govt’s colossal financial mismanagement for delay in State Plan Outlay
DIMAPUR, MAY 10 (MExN): The opposition Congress party in Nagaland has pointed out that there was “colossal financial mismanagement” and that the DAN government has landed the State into a serious “debt trap.” It added that this was compounded with imminent signs of tighter budgetary and monetary policy imposed on the state government which would bring the entire state machinery to a grinding halt.
The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee has claimed that the delay in finalization of the State Annual Plan for Financial Year 2013-14 was a “vindication of the financial mismanagement that the DAN III government has inherited from its past two terms.”
The Media Cell, NPCC has argued that the annual plan outlay for 2013-14 of all neighboring states have been finalized by the Planning Commission of India (PCI), whereas the state government is “running from pillar to pillar at Delhi to finalize the annual plan outlay, but has failed to convince the PCI owing to a huge amount kept in Civil Deposit amounting to over 648 crores during 2012-13”.
“To hoodwink the PCI, the state government had directed all the departmental heads to submit the utilization certificate in r/o of the amount kept in the Civil Deposit, but this has been resisted by the respective departmental heads so far”, stated the NPCC.
According to the RTI reply furnished by the State Finance department, which the NPCC has disclosed, the total amount kept in Civil Deposit during 2012-13 by 54 department amounts to a staggering Rs 64830.13 lakhs. The amount of Civil Deposit released during 2011-12 from 48 departments totals to Rs 35658.15 lakhs.
Further, the NPCC disclosed that Open Market Loan which stood at Rs 50500.00 lakhs (505 crores) during 2011-12 went up to Rs 65500.00 lakhs (655 crores) during 2012-13 with interest rates ranging from 8.55% to 9.32%. The Loans from Financial Institutions like NABARD, HUDCO, REC, PFC and NCDC stands at Rs 13873.18 lakhs during 2011-12 and Rs 10637.95 lakhs for 2012-13. The interest rate for these loans ranges from 6.5% to 14.75%.
The NPCC also stated that the deficits have been growing at an alarming pace. The deficit for 2008-09 was at Rs 494.23 crore and this has doubled by 2012-13 to Rs 927.51 crore.
“In the coming days, this will compound more misery to the plight of the people already saddled with poor infrastructure especially in the road sector and lack of access to basic amenities like regular power and water supply”, claimed the NPCC while stating that more details would be published in the media.
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