Akshay Azad
JAMMU, July 25: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah might have been patting his back for observing fiscal discipline his headship, but the recent revelations exposed his claims as the Jammu and Kashmir has stood second, in the list of states with highest debt liabilities.
Jammu and Kashmir is also the only state in the country which failed to achieve targets fixed by 13th Finance Commission to contain increasing debt, while all other 27 states successfully met the targets.
According to latest report of Union Finance Ministry, it has been revealed that Jammu and Kashmir has highest estimated debt and other liabilities at the end of year 2013-14. The debt and other liabilities are 53.6 percent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and the total liabilities on state are to the tune of Rs. 42339 Crores.
The state is only behind a north eastern state Mizoram, estimated debt and other liabilities of which were 63.4 percent of GSDP, but in monetary terms, it were only Rs. 5396 Crores.
Chattisgarh is the state with lowest liabilities of only 12.9 percent of GSDP and in terms of money it was Rs. 22173 Crores.
Moreover, the 13th Finance Commission had prescribed targets to various states to contain the increasing debt and other liabilities, but the financial condition of Jammu and Kashmir deteriorated further instead of showing some upward trend.
The 13th Finance Commission had prescribed target to Jammu and Kashmir as 51.6 percent, but the liabilities and loan position while deteriorating further stood at 53.6 percent of GSDP.
Besides Mizoram, which topped the list, has shown improvement in containing debt and liabilities. The 13th Finance Commission had prescribed target for Mizoram as 79.2 percent of GSDP and showing good financial discipline, Mizoram showed liabilities of 63.4 percent of GSDP, with an improvement of more than 13 percent.
In monetary terms, the Maharashtra has highest estimated debt and other liabilities to the tune of Rs. 2,89913 Crores but it was only 17.7 percent of GSDP of Maharashtra, followed by Uttar Pardesh with liabilities to the tune of Rs. 2,69803 Crores, which was 31.6 percent of GSDP.
In the list of 28 states, except Jammu and Kashmir all other states showed improvement in fiscal discipline and achieve prescribed targets, but J&K under the dynamic leadership of Omar Abdullah painted a gloomy picture. |
