AGARTALA, March 18 - With an intention to seek a special economic package from Centre to boost the State�s beleaguered fiscal situation, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb accompanied by Chief Secretary Sanjeev Ranjan left for Delhi on Sunday evening.
During the visit, Deb is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to seek their help to �rebuild� the State, said Dy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Barman.
Speaking to the media at the Civil Secretariat here, he said the State is having a whopping amount of liabilities of Rs 11,355.53 crore that was left by the erstwhile Left Front Government. �The fiscal deficit has been going up for the past five years and there was no control on the expenditure leading to so much of burden on the new government�, he said.
Terming the State�s fiscal position alarming, the Dy Chief Minister said expenditure in unplanned manner, leaving behind many projects midway and poor collection of revenue might be the reasons of upward trend in financial liabilities of the State.
�However, we will keep our promises which were made during the Assembly elections amidst poor fiscal position. Of course, the Chief Minister will seek support from the Centre�, he pointed out.
Dev Barman informed that the previous government had taken up several projects without ensuring fund flow that resulted in stalemate in execution. �The amount of incomplete projects could be worth Rs 1,644.90 crore as on today. It means there were wasteful expenditures by the erstwhile government. Now, we will have to pay for it�, he pointed out.
On being asked about the additional financial implication to the State�s non-plan expenditure after implementation of 7th CPC, the Dy Chief Minister, who holds the Finance portfolio, informed it would be roughly Rs 1,459.51 crore annually.
It means the State Government will have to spend Rs 1,459.51 crore annually for remaining three years of XIV Finance Commission period. And, then the next Finance Commission will reimburse the entire amount as per the existing system.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to constitute an expert committee to be headed by former Chief Secretary of Assam PP Verma to prepare a roadmap for implementing 7th CPC to the employees and pensioners.
Verma was the chairman of a committee that had suggested pay hike structure of Assam Government employees and pensioners as per the recommendations of 7th CPC.
