Thursday, December 1 2005 16:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Claiming that theNational Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government had inherited an empty exchequer from the previous Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) regime, the Bihar Government today (Dec 1,2005) said it would bring out a white paper soon on the state's finances.

"We have inherited an empty exchequer and an economy which is in a shambles. We will bring a white paper on the state's finances since 1990 when the Janata Dal Government came to power", Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who also holds the finance portfolio, said while laying the budget for 2005-06 in the state assembly.

The Budget was actually presented in Parliament and vote on account passed for nine months as the state was under President's Rule. Charging the erstwhile RJD Government with having adopted a policy of 'Rinam Kritwa Ghritam pivet (take loan and enjoy)', Modi said the state's liabilities stood at a whopping Rs 4334 crore in 2005-06 which included internal debts and loans taken from the Center.

He said this amounted to about 61 per cent of state's gross domestic product, while the national average was 40.9 per cent.

Modi said of the state's total revenue receipts, more than 20 per cent went towards payment of interest on loans.

The state will have to take a loan of about Rs 1000 crore this year to meet its committed non-plan expenditures like payment of salaries, pension, debt servicing and grants to universities and Bihar State Electricity Board.

Stating that the previous Government was plagued more by 'crisis of implementation' than resource crunch, he said of the plan expenditure of Rs 5414 crore proposed this year, only Rs 1013 crore had been spent so far.