Kohima, 27 March (MTNews): “Nagaland’s own revenue is barely sufficient to cover the salary expenditure for two and half months,” said CM Rio, adding, it still accounts for only 12.36% of total revenue receipts.
This, according to Rio, is a result despite the revenue increase in areas like State GST, which increased from Rs 788.37 crore during the pre-pandemic year 2019-20 to Rs 1,092.21 crore during 2021- 22.
He also informed that the revenues from the coal sector increased from Rs 53 lakhs during 2019-20 to Rs 2.03 crore during 2021-22. During the current financial year, it has already reached Rs 5 crore as per the latest details and is expected to cross Rs 8 crore by the end of the current financial year.
Forest sector, according to him, also saw a good increase in revenue from Rs 13.72 crore during 2019-20 to Rs 19.06 crore during 2021-22.
However, despite these encouraging trends, Rio observed it was barely sufficient to cover the salary expenditure for two and half months.
He also lamented on the huge loss faced by the Power sector where he informed that a total of Rs 580.89 crore was spent to purchase power but only Rs 280 crore was collected as revenue in return.
“The last four years have witnessed a total loss of Rs 1,079.74 crore in the Power sector,” CM said, adding that an amount of Rs 12.64 crore was spent by NST on fuel alone while the department was able to collect revenue of Rs 6.50 crore only.