Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Tuesday said the state Government will explore various austerity measures at all levels as Meghalaya Legislative Assembly passed Rs 1,592 crore deficit budget for 2023-24, which is around 3.42 percent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).
Talking to reporters after the conclusion of the budget session, Chief Minister Sangma said, “…wherever we can look into having austerity measures, departmentally and even from the finance department as a whole we will definitely explore that and it’s always a practice that we should try and have austerity measures at all levels.”
Asked, how are you going to spend it prudently as no austerity measures mentioned in the budget?, the Chief Minister said, “We need to realize that the capital expenditure has gone up significantly this time and this is very important to fulfill the respective targets that we have to reach the Rs 80,000 crore economy and therefore those investments are necessary.”
The State Government plans to adopt policies and programs to double the GSDP to around Rs 80,000 crore by 2027-28 and make Meghalaya a 10 Billion-dollar economy.
The effort will be to increase both government expenditure and private investments through prioritizing trade, tourism, high-value agriculture and building a knowledge economy.