In Jharkhand, per capita debt is Rs.10,000

In Jharkhand, each person owes a debt of Rs.10,000, while the per capita income is around Rs.37,000, said an official.

"Jharkhand owes loans of around Rs.36,000 crore. If the total loan is divided with number of the total population, it will come around Rs.10,000 debt on each person of the state," Finance Secretary A.P. Singh told IANS.

As per the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), the per capita income is around Rs.37,000, against the national per capita income of more than Rs.47,000, he said.

The per capita income is calculated on two points of the GSDP - fixed and current GSDP. According to fixed and current GSDP, the per capita income of Jharkhand will be Rs.37,000 and Rs.52,000 against the national average of Rs.47,000 and Rs.63,000.

He said, "Taking loan is not bad thing for development of the state. Jharkhand is one of states on which loan burden is lowest. According to central Fiscal Responsibility budget, we can take loan up to three percent of fiscal deficit of the GSDP but for the next year budget, our projected fiscal deficit is just 2.3 percent".

Asked about the economic health of the state, he said, "The economic health of the state is good and there is need to increase expenditure capabilities. We are on the 21st position as far as infrastructure deficit is concerned".

He stressed the need to increase generating resources of the state.

The Jharkhand government Friday tabled a Rs.50,387.70 crore budget for the 2014-15 financial year.

Jharkhand gets royalty of around Rs.3,000 crore from mines. Of this, Rs.1,800 crore comes from coal. If the mines valuation is deducted, the per capita income based the GSDP will go down below Rs.30,000.