Page 2 - State Finances

Nine states, 2 UTs see rising fiscal deficits post-pandemic: PHDCCI report

"States are classified as resilient if their fiscal deficit as a percentage of GSDP has decreased from the pre-pandemic to the post-pandemic period," the report says

TMC leaders detained during dharna on 2nd day of protest for state funding

Development came as tug-of-war between Centre and Bengal govt over release of funds to state intensified with TMC holding protests in the national capital for the second consecutive day

States must focus on transparency with regard to finances: NITI Aayog CEO

NITI Aayog CEO B V R Subrahmanyam on Monday emphasised on the need to focus on transparency with regard to states' finances as greater transparency will help states raise resources from market at competitive rates. Participating in a seminar organised by the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), he also made a case for having a fiscal council like institution to better manage the debt trajectory of the Centre and states. Transparency is more important than uniformity and states should ensure that everything gets reported in some form or the other because the market values transparency, he said. Citing an example, he said, five southern states accounted for 93 per cent of off- budget borrowing last year while all the high deficit states like West Bengal, Punjab and Rajasthan have low off-budget borrowing. "It is all because of market discipline...people are more willing to lend to these five states as compared to West Bengal, Punjab and Rajasthan," he said, adding, there a

Statsguru: States' finances are improving, debt likely to shoot up

When the Union government announced Budget for 2022-23, it had projected revenue to be 8.5% of GDP. A Business Standard analysis of latest report on state finances showed that states are catching up

Capex push in states

Maintaining the momentum will be challenging

Free grain under NFSA: States to save on food bill, lose political mileage

Food subsidies are a major portion of subsidies provided by states

State finances: Why FPIs need a reality check before they loosen the purse

Greater scrutiny shows that stagnant revenues and unrestrained freebies have left most of them in a perilous position

States' share in central taxes come down to 29-32% against recommended 41%

The previous five years saw the states' share, except for 2019-20, in between 34.5% and 37%, whereas the recommendation was to give them a 42% share

Centre cites policy to reject union's proposal to merge RINL with SAIL

Public sector undertakings (PSUs) in non-strategic sectors shall be considered for privatisation, or they shall be closed, said Minister of State Finance Bhagwat Karat in Rajya Sabha.

GST Council: Stormy discussion around states' compensation likely today

States will demand an extension of the compensation period or a change in the GST revenue distribution formula

States showing warning signs of stress; need corrective action: RBI article

Observing that the slowdown in own tax revenue, a high share of committed expenditure and rising subsidy burdens have stretched state government finances already exacerbated by Covid, the article said

State finances improve, gross fiscal deficit declines 31.5%: RBI report

In addition to the regular instalment of tax devolution, the Centre released two advance instalments of in November 2021 and January 2022.

Not all states are so financially weak that they can't announce freebies

However some such as Punjab and West Bengal are not on sound financial ground

Tamil Nadu Budget aims to cut revenue deficit by Rs 7,000 crore

Rs 2,531 crore for waiver of agricultural loans, Rs 1,000 crore for waiver of jewel loans and Rs 600 crore for waiving self-help group loans has been allotted

Pension bills of states cut into municipal budget in the time of Covid

An RBI analysis showed that during the second wave, 22% of municipalities reported revenue loss of an alarming 50% and more

Big-ticket stake: Tamil Nadu's Thiagarajan sets out to fix state finances

From banking in the US to politics in India, Thiagarajan's journey has been eventful.

Huge spike in states' Q4 spend to be used mostly to settle current bills

Aggregate debt raised from the market by states has risen in nine months of this year by a massive 43.5% over last year. It is the biggest jump in state borrowings ever

Why the fifteenth finance commission report merits a proper discussion

It is vital that we have a proper discussion on the medium-term economic and fiscal situation based on the Fifteenth Finance Commission medium-term assessment

Best of BS Opinion: Brace for return migration, overseas listing, and more

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day

The curious case of a Rs 2.55-trillion discrepancy in state govt accounts

The territories have either spent excessively or have saved unreasonably. In either case, there is a cost that the citizen ends up bearing