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The citizens of Gujarat will have to pay more taxes and duties to the state government in the coming years. The government may have to impose more taxes and duties to maintain the balance in
state finance as per the recommendations of 12th Finance Commission (FC). The increasing rates of public debt against decreasing growth in revenue receipts of state may push the government
to collect more revenue through tax incomes in years to come. The maturity profile of the public debt of state government indicated that liability of the state to repay the debt during the
periods 2018 to 2020 would be Rs 31,983.74 crore, during 2020 to 2022 the same would be Rs. 40,636.51 crore and during 2022 to 2024 it would be Rs. 38,939.01 crore. The CAG indicated in its
report, "This may put a strain on the government budget during that period. Further, Rs 1,25,094.21 crore that is 62.75 percent of the total public debt would be repayable within next
seven years. Therefore, the state government would have to work out a well-thought of debt repayment strategy." This directly indicates that the government will have to increase its
revenue receipts to repay the debts and that the government can do only by increasing taxes and duties. The audit report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) been tabled in Gujarat
assembly on Wednesday indicated this in the assessment of finance of the state government. The CAG mentioned in the report that total outstanding liabilities of state government increased
from Rs. 1,66,667 crore in 2012-13 to Rs. 2,43,146 crore in 2016-17. The outstanding liabilities at the end of the year 2016-17 comprised of internal debt of Rs. 1,92,772 crore, loans and
advances from the central government of Rs. 6,566 crore and small savings and provident fund of Rs. 43,908 crore. The net funds available from borrowings for current operations after
providing for the interest and repayment increased from Rs. 2,477 crore in 2015-16 to Rs. 4,529 crore in 2016-17. WHAT FC SAYS * As per 12th FC rec-ommendations, the ratio of interest
payments to revenue receipts should decline to 15% by 2009-10. * Average interest payments on total lia-bilities as a percentage of revenue receipts of Gujarat during 2012-13 to 2016-17
stood at 16.40% which was more than the recommended 15%.