Mining ban made Goa govt borrow just half of okayed limit: CM

Goa government today said that since its economy was hit by mining closure, the state borrowed only half of its permissible limit in the ongoing Financial Year (FY).
"We were permitted to borrow an advance of Rs 1,945 crore for the current FY, but between April and December last year we borrowed only Rs 950 crore," Parsekar told the State Legislative Assembly putting to rest the rumours that the government had borrowed more.
He reminded that the state is losing a revenue of Rs 1,000 crore annually due to the ban on the mining industry, which has stressed it financially.

"Impression is being created that government is funding its social security schemes through borrowings (loans). But that is not true. We spent Rs 950 crore on creating infrastructure," Parsekar said.
According to him, between April and December 2015, Rs 260 crore were disbursed to Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation, Rs 395 crore to Public Works Department, Rs 83 crore to Water Resources Department, Rs 110 crore to Electricity department, Rs 30 crore to Sewerage corporation, Rs 35 crore to Goa Tourism Development Corporation, Rs 20 crore to Goa state Urban development agency and Rs 40 crore to Sports Authority of Goa.

"We believe that the borrowings should be used to create capital assets. These assets are for the posterity; it is for next generation," he commented.

The CM said his government spent its revenue collected in the form of taxes on salaries, pensions and to fund social security schemes like Dayanand Social Security Scheme, Griha Adhar, Ladli Lakshmi and Mamata.
"It was also used to pay Rs 100 crore installment towards the borrowings fetched during earlier FYs," he added.
In addition to this, he said, the Centre has funded infrastructure projects of more than Rs 5,000 crore for the state, including highways and bridges.

"I was calculating total funding from the Centre to the state during last 28 years since the time Goa attained statehood and I found that the entire amount did not total to Rs 5,000 crore, which we got within a year from Modi-led NDA government. The central government has a positive approach towards Goa," Parsekar said.