Fiscal pressures emerging for several states: RBI
Mumbai, July 12 : Fiscal pressures are emerging for several states on the expenditure side, under committed heads, said a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report, released here on Thursday.
Entitled "State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2017-18 and 2018-19", the report is an annual publication that provides information, analysis and an assessment of the finances of state governments.
"Visible fiscal pressures are emerging for several states on the expenditure side, particularly under the committed heads and other state-specific schemes like agricultural debt waivers," the RBI said.
According to the report, in 2018-19, states' revenue capacity is likely to be augmented with the stabilization of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the consequent expansion of tax base and efficacy.
"With the implementation of the E-way bill for inter-state movement of goods from April 2018, states could also strive for generating more revenues by locking in efficiency in tax administration," the report said.
If the revenue receipts of the states end up again in shortfall relative to budgeted levels, then better fiscal marksmanship and efficiency of expenditure is needed for providing robustness to state finances, it added.
While states' consolidated gross fiscal deficit (GFD) overshot the budget estimates in 2017-18 due to shortfalls in own tax revenues and higher revenue expenditure, for 2018-19, states have budgeted for a correction, mainly emanating from a modest revenue surplus.
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Notices issued to Himachal conductor, driver for anti-Rahul Gandhi audio clip playing in govt bus
Shimla, Nov 30: After finding itself in soup over a CID enquiry on "missing samosas", the Himachal Pradesh government is again in a tight spot for issuing notices to a state roadways conductor and driver after an audio clip with defamatory remarks against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was allegedly played in their bus.
A man in his complaint to the Chief Minister's Office said defamatory words were used against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and other leaders in an audio clip which was played in the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus plying between Shimla and Sanjauli on November 5.
In a letter to the conductor and driver of the bus on November 25, the HRTC sought explanation from them. The letter went viral on the internet.
Talking to reporters on Friday, HRTC Managing Director Rohan Chand Thakur said a routine complaint was received from a customer after which a fact finding enquiry was initiated. The enquiry was closed as the allegations were found baseless.
However, the wording of the explanation sought could have been better and the officers have been verbally conveyed to improve in the coming times, he added.
The defamatory words were allegedly used in a debate being played in the audio clip.
Reacting sharply to the letter, BJP MLA from Dharamshala, Sudhir Sharma, said the government should appoint marshals to stop audios being played in buses.
"Such decisions of the government are damaging the reputation of the state government as well as the state," he added.
Earlier, the state CID department had ordered an internal enquiry on the samosas which were brought for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu during a function and by mistake were served to the his security staff. A senior police official had termed the faux pas as an anti-CID and ant-Government act.
