SHILLONG, MAR 3: Opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP) chief and Nongkrem legislator Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit on Monday expressed apprehension that the Centre may one day ask the state government to repay the loan in the form of extraction of Uranium in Meghalaya.
Participating in the debate on the Governor’s Address, Basaiawmoit said, “What will happen if the government of India one fine day asks the state government to repay the loan in the form of extraction of Uranium in our state?”
He alleged that the government of the day is still availing loans after loans from various International Banking Institutions. He said, “…the people need to know how much loan Meghalaya avail till this financial year 2024-2025? How much of the loan is yet to be repaid by the government and what kind of loan is being provided? How much of the financial support from those World Bank, Asian Development banks, JICA and others are in the form of loans.”
Reminding that Meghalaya is a non-revenue generating state, the VPP chief said, “The chief minister himself has admitted in one of his meetings with the state tax officers that Meghalaya entirely depends heavily on central government revenue sources. My sincere question to the government is whether we are prepared to repay all these loans and if we fail to do so, will the government of India bail us out and are we prepared on those conditions to be laid by the Government of India, when the government of India decides to bail us out.”
“I am sure that all the right thinking members will ponder and there has been and this goes around that if the state government continues in this trend to take loans, one fine day we may have to face a condition that may bring problems to the state,” he warned.
Basaiawmoit said that he is sceptical if the government of the day will be able to live up to its commitment to transform Meghalaya into a 10 billion dollar economy because “I don’t know from where the money will come”.
“Can we continue to avail loans after loans from various banks? The CAG had warned that the state’s borrowing trend increased by over 63% in the past five years and could put the state into a debt trap. The fact of the matter is that we are already in a debt trap,” he pointed out. He said, “Let me also quote the CAG report, of the total debts, about 73% are internal in the form of market loans, ways and means advances from RBI, special security issued to national small saving funds and loans from financial institutions, 23% is public account liabilities and only 4% is loan from the central government.”
Also, Basaiawmoit said that Meghalaya has indeed been found to be the third poorest state after Jharkhand and Bihar.
“This is according to the national multidimensional poverty index baseline report 2023. Meghalaya has been listed with 27.9% rate of poverty. As of July 2024, the unemployment rate in Meghalaya was 6.0% which is higher than the national average at 3.2%,” he said while further referring to a periodic labour force survey conducted by the national sample survey office, which revealed more than 85% of the unemployment are in the age of 15 to 30 years in Meghalaya.
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