Reserve Bank study finds Gujarat has to spend huge funds from coffers to pay up for interest taken on loan

A new study, “Debt Sustainability at the State Level in India”, by Balbir Kaur, Atri Mukherjee, Neeraj Kumar and Anand Prakash Ekka of the Department of Economic and Policy Research of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has found that, as of March-end 2013, a huge 17 per cent of the revenue expenditure of the Gujarat government goes into paying up interests on loan taken by it over the years, which is higher than most states.
Suggesting that this is higher all 17 major states taken up for analysis, except West Bengal (20.9 per cent), the data suggest that Gujarat has progressively paid a higher proportion of interest on loan compared to most states ever since 1981.
Thus, the study finds that between1981-82 and 1991-92, interest formed 10.3 per cent of the revenue expenditure of the Gujarat government, which was higher than six other states. Between 1992-93 and 1996-97, 15.3 per cent of the revenue expenditure went into paying interest, which was, again, higher than six other states. Between 1997-98 and 2003-04, once again, six states paid a higher proportion of revenue expenditure as interest.

But things clearly changed thereafter. From 2004-06 to 2012-13, when ex-Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was at his peak, Gujarat spent 20.6 per cent of the revenue expenditure as interest on loans, which was second highest, next to West Bengal (20.6 per cent).

Worse, a further analysis suggests, from 2004-05 to 2012-13, 21.2 per cent of the revenue receipts, which the Gujarat government received as taxes and non-tax revenues, went into paying up interest on loans, which was higher than most states except Punjab (23 per cent) and West Bengal (24.7 per cent).

The study underlines, there could be “a serious problem of intolerable debt in the long-run equilibrium” in states where the interest payments to revenue receipts ratio was “above the tolerable limit of 20 per cent.” Indeed, Gujarat is one of the three states which falls in this category.

The study further finds that between 2004-05 and 2012-13, Gujarat’s debts formed 29.8 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), suggesting that these were unsustainable. This was higher than seven other states, suggesting that eight other states, with a higher debt-GSDP ratio, also had similar unsustainable nature of debt. On the other hand, as many states had a lower debt-GSDP ratio, suggesting their debt was more sustainable than Gujarat’s.
The study concludes that “the debt sustainability indicators showed significant improvement during 2004-05 to 2012-13 compared to the earlier phase (1997-98 to 2003-04).” But, clearly, as for Gujarat, this was not the case.
Thus, between 1981-82 and 1992-93, Gujarat’s debt-GSDP ratio was 17.6 per cent and between 1993-93 and 1996-97 it was 19.9 per cent. It shot up to 30.6 per cent in the next phase, between 1997-98 and 2003-04, and in the last phase it went down marginally.

Comments

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A sector under siege? War and real estate: Navigating uncertainty in India's expanding market

I was a little surprised when I received an email alert from a top real estate consultant, Anarock Group , titled "Exploring War’s Effects on Indian Real Estate—When Conflict Meets Concrete," authored by its regional director and head of research, Dr. Prashant Thakur. I had thought that the business would wholeheartedly support what is considered a strong response to the dastardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor.

Search This Blog