State Govt to issue White Paper on debt burden: Mungantiwar

* Much-awaited report of Kelkar Committee on balanced development, to be tabled during winter session of State Legislature starting next week in city
* Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar hints at special Industrial Policy for Naxal-affected areas like Gadchiroli
* Mungantiwar to tour every district in State in January 2015 to assess developmental priorities for 2015-16 budget
By Kartik Lokhande 
“We have inherited empty coffers and a huge debt burden of Rs 2,36,000 crore from previous Government led by Congress. Every day, State has to pay Rs 63 crore as interest on the debt. There was criminal judgement on part of Congress-led Government as far as utilising the debt was concerned. Hence, we have decided to bring out a White Paper on debt burden,” said Sudhir Mungantiwar, Finance and Forest Minister of Maharashtra.
How much of employment was created from the money spent out of such a huge debt burden, how many projects were completed, whether the State created capital assets that resulted in increase in revenue, etc are the points of assessment for the new Government, said Mungantiwar. Stating that obtaining debt was not a bad thing, but alleged that the previous Government did not utilise the debt for productive purposes. He was interacting with reporters at ‘Meet the Press’ programme organised by Nagpur Union of Working Journalists (NUWJ) and Tilak Patrakar Bhavan Trust (TPBT) at Patrakar Bhavan here on Tuesday evening.

Sudhir Mungantiwar, Finance and Forest Minister, making a point during ‘Meet the Press’ programme at Tilak Patrakar Bhavan here on Tuesday evening. Also seen are Pradip Maitra, President of Tilak Patrakar Bhavan Trust; Anupam Soni, Secretary of NUWJ, and others. (Photo courtesy: Satish Raut/The Hitavada)

Elaborating further, Mungantiwar said that department-wise assessment of debt obtained, utilised, assets created etc was in progress. “The assessment will be completed by March,” he said, hinting that the White Paper will come out during budget session of State Legislature. The exercise has been taken up, as there was utter lack of financial planning during erstwhile Congress-NCP Government, he added. Already, he said, BJP Government has initiated certain steps towards restoring fiscal discipline. These include curbing the practice of spending more than 15 per cent of allocation in March (end of financial year), department-wise assessment of requirement of funds, etc. Various departments have 1,250 schemes.
Besides, said Finance Minister, he would visit every district headquarter in the State in January 2015 to know their requirements and set developmental priorities for the Government. “Based on this realistic assessment, I will be presenting the budget for the year 2015-16. Our objective is to correct the mistakes committed by Congress,” he said. The priorities will be set vis-a-vis State’s resources for the next five years. If needed, BJP Government also will avail debt but emphasise on its proper and effective utilisation on productive purposes. Care will be taken to ensure that Five Year Plan objectives are reflected in the budget.
Replying to a question, Finance Minister said that certain regions remained developmentally backward due to neglect. BJP Government will focus on balanced development of all regions, and make a special provision for developmentally backward regions. Asked about report of Kelkar Committee on balanced development of various regions, Mungantiwar said that the report would be tabled during winter session of State Legislature scheduled to commence from Monday in the city. He hinted at a special plan for Naxal-affected areas, and also considering human development index (HDI) as basis for development.
On the promise of taking action against the corrupt in multi-crore irrigation scam, Mungantiwar said that the BJP Government wanted to give a transparent and people-oriented governance to the citizens. For the purpose, it was bringing in Right to Service Bill to ensure that every citizen got services in prescribed time-frame. This will reduce corruption, he observed. Besides, the Government was chalking out plan to complete at least half of 450 irrigation projects in five years as part of the long-term measures to provide relief to farmers who were committing suicides, he added.
Pradip Maitra, President of TPBT; Anupam Soni, Secretary of NUWJ; Ramshankar Pandey; Archana Dehankar, former Mayor; Shrikant Deshpande, Sanjay Fanje also shared the dais during ‘Meet the Press’ programme.

Rs 22,000 cr unspent with
some deptts: Mungantiwar Citing an example of financial mismanagement during the erstwhile Congress-NCP Government, Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said that a huge tax revenue was unrealised. Besides, an amount of Rs 22,000 crore was unspent with some departments. However, he refused to disclose the departments. He said, the erstwhile Government made allocations but the departments did not utilise it.

‘BJP Govt firm on scrapping LBT’
Reiterating the BJP Government’s commitment to scrapping Local Body Tax (LBT), Mungantiwar said that a particular date for this could not be announced as finer points about possible alternatives were being worked out.

Stating that there was no difference of opinion in the Cabinet over the issue, the Finance Minister said that the State was waiting for Goods and Service Tax (GST) notification due to be issued this month by the Central Government. “Without knowing the provisions in the notification, and status of State Government in municipal finances, how can we scrap LBT or implement any new alternative? Waiting for some time does not mean that we will not be scrapping LBT,” he said.
Further, Mungantiwar explained, the Government wanted to zero in on an alternative would be acceptable to traders, and also to ensure that the autonomy of municipal corporations was not compromised. Besides, the Government would have to give a thought to the fact that the citizens were not burdened with tax. “A permanent tax system will have to be evolved and the Government is taking time for that. But, one thing is sure that LBT will be scrapped soon,” he observed.

‘BJP wants Shiv Sena to come along’
Against the backdrop of talks between BJP and Shiv Sena over the latter’s joining the Government, Sudhir Mungantiwar said that BJP was always in favour of Shiv Sena joining the Government. However, he refused to disclose the ‘seat-sharing formula’ for ministries, saying that immature disclosure would create hurdles in the smooth proceedings of talks.

State clears path for law
banning cow slaughter
Replying to a question, Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said that the BJP Government had cleared the path for passage of a law banning cow slaughter in Maharashtra. The Bill was cleared in 1995 during the previous BJP-Sena Government’s tenure. However, he said, since then the Bill was awaiting the assent of the President of India as there were certain issues with the Union Home Ministry during the Congress’ rule in past 15 years. “Now, we have conveyed our consent for passage of the Bill and the law will soon be a reality,” he said. Asked about a Bill on religious freedom that he had tabled as Opposition MLA a few years ago, he said that the issue would be discussed at a later stage. 

(02-12-14)