(Tribune)
Not in a pink of financial health, the new BJP government under Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has applied for raising loan from the market.Finding itself in a tight financial situation, the state government has sought permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for raising the loan of Rs 400 crore.“We have applied for loan to meet out the financial requirements of the state. In a financial year we can raise loan which should be 3 per cent of the GSDP,” said Prakash Pant, Uttarakhand Minister for Department of Finance. The borrowing cap set by the RBI for Uttarakhand is Rs 5,855 crore.
A consumer ridden economy, where the venues for earning income are a few and far between, the majority of the state’s non-plan expenditure goes towards salaries and pensions of employees.Further, exacerbating the financial situation is the accumulated debt on the state, since its inception, which is around Rs 39,031.87 crore (since creation of the state in 2000 and as on March 31, 2016).
