‘Assam needs to speed up growth rate’

Guwahati: The chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, who arrived in Assam on Friday, said that all the departments should give priority to finalisation of the accounts and if they fail to do so not only the respective departments but state will have to suffer. Asserting that Assam has a “long way to go” to catch up with national average in terms of overall development, the chairman of the commission, N.K. Singh, said, “In the last 2-3 years, Assam achieved significant progress with recent spurt in growth. It has maintained overall macro-economic stability along with improvement in indicators of human resources development.”

The members of the commission, who met the representatives of various political parties and members of the autonomous district councils, also stressed the need of brining financial discipline in utilisation of the funds. “The state also needs to catch up to other key parameters like education and health. Quality of expenditure is important. There is a long way to go to increase the percentage of capital expenditure in overall revenue expenditure,” Mr Singh said.

He informed that Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has brought to the notice of the commission about lesser collection of tax revenue due to implementation of GST. “It may be due to transitional impact and devaluation issue of GST. Getting lesser funds by the 14th Finance Commission has also been brought to our notice. It may not be done intentionally. We will see how we can help to not slow down the economic growth of the state,” Mr Singh said.

He pointed out that the Central government had guaranteed a 14 per cent buoyancy, so Assam should wait for some more time.

“This is a consequence of abolition of Planning Commission. We have to study this. The issue of special category status to states is not a part of the terms and conditions of Finance Commission. This is an executive status. The entire fiscal stability of a state is under the purview of Finance Commission,” he added.

He also said that Assam  faces enormous challenges due to natural calamities such as flood and erosion by Brahmaputra.