Goa Broke?

Fishy fiscal propriety

Is Goa going broke? If the answer is no, it could well be getting there. A former development commissioner now back in Delhi once told me the direction in which the Digambar Kamat government was heading, it would hit financial road’s end sooner than later weighed down as it is by a hefty pension bill of an army of retired workers, not to mention the cost of government workers currently occupying table space. As on December 31, 2009 your government’s market borrowings were Rs 229880.23 (in lakhs) up from Rs 163111.72 the previous year. In other words, it borrowed Rs 66768.51 more from the market within the space of just 12 months. This kind of figure does not exactly spell fiscal prudence especially in a state where VAT collection is virtually nonexistent in major areas of the tourism and mining industries. How many restaurants and how many in ancillary services to the mining industry you know, give you a proper tax added on bill even if you ask for one. But I wager you also have an endless list of these and other traders that are plainly affronted if you ask for a bill, a proper one that is, not a hand written bit of notepad paper. By the way, market borrowing sources are those other than the central government and institutions that lend like LIC, NABARD, NCDC, REC, HUDCO and PFC.

The Beginning

At the end of 2007, its market borrowings were Rs 122735.8. In 2006 end it was Rs 100942.89. In 2005 it was Rs 99443.01 and in 2004 end it was Rs 96121.31. Clearly from 2006 its financial management went awry and its borrowings took a frenzied pace. This stands out clearly in all its borrowings from other sources too. For example in 2004 its loan borrowings from the central government stood at Rs 234332.44. By 2009 it went up to Rs 334970.12, a hike of Rs 100637.68. It also borrowed from the six institutional lenders named above. To cut a long and worrying story short by end 2009 it had borrowed Rs 593201.26 up from Rs 346755.77 borrowed in 2004 end. While no Indian state can claim to be financially prudent, point is our MLA’s discuss monitoring of fish sold in the market in the Assembly instead of fiscal discipline.

Deep Blue Sea

It could get worse if the environmentally dangerous Panjim-Vasco Sea Link Project is undertaken considering the consultant Louis Berger Group alone was paid Rs 89 lakh. There’s something between the Congress and the deep sea because successive governments have paid a total of Rs 21.60 lakh towards the Oceanorium project which might needed a lot more oxygen before it begins to breathe, if ever. For the record, Rs 10.60 lakh was paid to the Transaction Advisor and Rs 11 lakh spent to build a compound wall around the project site which so far has seen only rain fall and nothing else. There’s the River Princess calamity. Then there’s also Greenfield Mopa airport project which for sheer lunacy must rank second only to that scam of the century, the Commonwealth Games. National Games 2011 did you say? Yes, there’s that too.

They protest too much

What is with traders and shop owners in Panjim? They protest too much. This time it’s the Municipal Market Tenants’ Association protestations against the Corporation of the City of Panjim’s (CCP) pay parking around the municipal market. In the past, traders have protested every citizen friendly decision of the police traffic cell and the CCP to decongest the crammed city which gets crammed by the building so to speak. It’s bursting at the seams and the buildings keep coming in a wave. Traders in Panjim have usurped public parking space, some of them using devious ways like placing hand carts in front of their shops. In fact I wonder why the traffic cell even bothers to defend itself for the mayhem on the roads but more on that on another day soon. It’s also okay to take over entire pavements. Herald pointed out sometime ago how Kamat Hotel in Panjim conveniently allowed panwallahs outside because it helped their almost entirely tourist clientele forcing locals to walk on the road. The Panjim traffic cell pointed out how shop owners parked their own vehicles on 18th June Road from morning till closing time occupying most of the parking space. There are more blatant examples of appropriation of parking spaces. Do us a favour please, cut the crap and put a zip on that lip of yours.

Here’s really why

This will shock you for their brazenness. The CCP has been left holding a water consumption bill of Rs 12,06,952 and an electricity bill of Rs 62,20,833 which traders in the municipal market have refused to pay. That’s a total of Rs 74,27,785 of money owed to CCP which desperately needs funds. There could be more owed by way of nonpayment of both rent and maintenance charges. Oh yes, these guys are in a league of their own and more. In fact there’s a huge scam waiting to be exposed of the CCP can complete the government-ordered investigation into the scams involving the market which the Goa Infrastructure Development Corporation built.

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