Goa: Opposition accuses govt of fudging financial figures

The opposition on Tuesday accused the BJP-led Goa government of 'fudging' the figures on borrowings and other financial indicators.

Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat and Goa Forward Party's Vijai Sardesai raised the issue of the state's financial condition during Question Hour in the Assembly, but the discussion had to be wound up for paucity of time.

GFP MLA Jayesh Salgaonkar had tabled a question on the same issue, to which Chief Minister Pramod Sawant gave a written reply.

Addressing a press conference during the lunch break, Kamat, a veteran Congress leader and former chief minister, alleged that the government had "fudged the figures on its financial situation".

"The government has given different answers to the same question on financial situation to different MLAs," he claimed.

As per one of the written replies, the state's borrowings stood at Rs 20,412 crore during 2018-19, which went up to Rs 24,928.23 crore in 2019-20, he said.

But elsewhere these figures ranged from Rs 16,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore, Kamat alleged.

"The revenue receipts for FY 2019-20 are Rs 8,475.01 crore, while revenue expenditure is Rs 8,099.85 crore. There is revenue surplus of Rs 375.16 crore. If there is surplus then why is the government borrowing," Kamat asked.

Sardesai alleged that the government was hiding "financial misappropriation" by putting out wrong figures.

"BJP is trying to divert (attention from) economic issues and taking up emotive issues," he said, referring to Monday's discussion on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the House.

The state's total debt was Rs 21,000 crore, he said.

"For the current year, Rs 859.94 crore borrowed for capital expenditure were used to pay salaries of government servants," Sardesai alleged, calling it "blatantly illegal".

"We wanted to expose this (in the House), had we got an opportunity," he said.

Contractors' bills of Rs 767 crore were not paid as the government coffers do not have enough funds, he alleged.