The State government’s expenditure on freebies and subsidies came down marginally in 2017-18, according to the State Finance Audit report of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).

“Subsidies are dispensed not only explicitly but also implicitly by providing subsidised public service to the people. Budgetary support to financial institutions, inadequate return on investments, poor recovery of user charges, assistance in cash/kind to individuals etc., fall under the category of implicit subsidies,” said the report tabled on Saturday, the last day of the ongoing Assembly session. Subsidies consumed 10.41% of the State’s revenue in 2017-18, said the report for the year ending March 2018.

The expenditure on subsidy increased from ₹9,646 crore in 2013-14 to ₹16,092 crore in 2016-17. However, there was a marginal decline to ₹15,230 crore in 2017-18, mainly on account of reduction on agricultural and horticulture inputs by ₹1,693 crore, the report said. Implicit subsidies in the form of marriage assistance, maternity assistance, free supply of laptops, and uniforms came down from ₹6,156 crore in 2015-16 to ₹4,433 crore in 2017-18.

Debt burden

The expenditure on free supply of grinders, mixies came down to nil in 2017-18 from ₹2,000 crore in 2016-17. The money spent on distribution of free laptops came down to ₹641 crore in 2017-18 from ₹1,100 crore in 2015-16. The CAG report said the State stares at a huge debt burden, with 31.81% of the outstanding debt totalling ₹91,852.93 crore (as of March 2018) becoming due for repayment from 2021-22 to 2024-25 and warned that the government was likely to face challenges during that period.

It also pointed out that the the State’s revenue receipts stood at ₹1,46,280 crore and the annual growth rate during 2017-18 at 4.31%, which was much less than the growth rate of 11.30% of revenue receipt in general category States.