New Delhi: The Government of India has provided loans and advances to the tune of Rs17,670.07 crore to the Odisha Government during the past eight years, Union Minister of State (MoS) for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary said in RajyaSabha on Tuesday.
He said the Centre has released the loan in between the financial year 2014-15 and 2021-22. While Rs 529.10 crore has been provided to the State during 2014-15, the allocation increased to Rs 739.43 crore in 2015-16 and to Rs 902.98 crore in the next fiscal, Mr.Chaudhary said.
The borrowing amount fell down to Rs 848.35 crore in 2017-18. The State has received Rs 983.06 crore and Rs 969.64 crore as loan and advance from the Union Government during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 fiscal.
The borrowing amount has increased substantially during the last two financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22 as the State has got back to back loans from the Centre in lieu of shortfall in GST compensation.
The centre has released Rs 5127.52 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 7569.99 crore (provisional) in the year 2021-22, as per the Minister’s reply.
By the end of March 2021, the total outstanding loan of Odisha against Centre was Rs 11,998.09 crore, he added.
In another written reply, Mr.Chaudhary said 15th Finance Commission recommended that the normal limit for net borrowings of State Governments may be fixed at 4 percent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in 2021-22, 3.5 per cent in 2022-23 and be maintained at 3 percent of GSDP from 2023-24 to 2025-26.
The Commission has also recommended an extra annual borrowing space for the States, of 0.50 per cent of their GSDP for the period 2021-22 to 2024-25, based on performance criteria in the power sector.
Based on the recommendation of Fifteenth Finance Commission (FFC), Net Borrowing Ceiling (NBC) of States for the financial year 2021-22 was fixed at 4 Per cent of GSDP and for the current financial year 2022-23, NBC of States has been fixed at 3.5 Per cent of GSDP, he said.
Further, the MoS informed that States are also eligible for additional borrowing up to 0.50 per cent of GSDP based on certain performance criteria in the power sector, for which guidelines have already been issued in June, 2021.
