Goa's 49% expenditure is non-productive

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panjim

Goa appears to be one of the richest states. It is an international tourist destination and attracts substantial foreign exchange leading to the highest per capita income in the country. But certain other figures strangely dilute this impression of plenty.

The state's budget documents show that 49 per cent of the expenditure is non-productive. And the largest chunk of this is spent on government servants.

With a ratio of 1:29 ratio, the second largest literate state has 42,000 government employees. This is considered to be very large for a state having hardly 1.2 million population.

Madhusudan Mistry, a Budget analyst from Gujarat, points out that no state in the country spends such large amounts for non-productive purposes. He is surprised that the 40-member house has 12 ministers, the expenditure on whom is being doubled every time a budget is presented. The Rs 190 million being spent on the police force for a state the size of Goa is also considered to be out of proportion, he adds.

Goa spends almost 12 per cent of its expenditure on general education and even those funds do not reach the grassroots level, claims Mistry. Going through the census figures and budgetary allocation, he points out that the school dropout rate is 42 per cent and the figure is much higher among scheduled castes.

Mistry explains how the state is exploiting the Goan population to provide facilities for the about 1.2 million tourists visiting the state every year and on the other hand does not tax the five-star hotels higher rates.

It has to be seen now whether Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane, while presenting the budget this month, includes his proposal to charge Rs 300 for every charter tourist landing in Goa. The policy could have an adverse effect on the tourism business which is already on the decline.