Goa`s fiscal deficit due to Congress misgovernance: Parrikar

Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar took on the opposition benches on Thursday for claiming that the fiscal deficit in the state budget was due to misgovernance by the erstwhile Congress government.

"The total liability of Rs 1,500 crore was carried forward to my government when we took over last year from the Congress-led government. Payments by various departments were not done properly," Parrikar told the Goa state legislative assembly, defending his budget. He claimed the former government practised utter financial mismanagement due to which the current government has to balance the budget, resulting in the fiscal deficit. Parrikar pointed out how his government had managed to renegotiate with a contractor which saved the government Rs 40 crore, which would have been lost. "Figures provided by the contractor were inflated. We renegotiated and found that the tendering was 15 per cent more. Naturally, the money would have gone into someone`s pocket," he said. He said that he had to face additional financial burden due to mining operations getting shut down by providing financial help to those affected without revenue from mining. PTI