FM assures justice to Tripura

Agartala, Jan 21 (PTI) Union Finance Minister PranabMukherjee has assured Tripura that the Centre would do justiceto the state if the 13th Finance Commission had committed any''mistake'' in fixing the state''s committed expenditure.

Tripura Finance minister Badal Chowdhury told reportershere today after returning from New Delhi where he metMukherjee on January 18 and briefed him about the state''sfragile financial condition.

"Mukherjee gave a patient hearing on our points andassured of compensation if the 13th Finance Commission hadmade any errors in calculating committed expenditure forsalary and pension," Chowdhury said.

Mukherjee had maintained the Centre can do nothing beyondthe recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission asparliament had given its nod to the Finance Commission''srecommendations, he said.

According to Chowdhury, "the recommendations of 13thFinance Commission have created a shortfall of Rs 6196.53crore and Rs 1165.71 crore on account of salary and pensionexpenditures respectively."

Asserting that the shortfall would be Rs 7362.24 crore byend of 13th Finance Commission award period, Chowdhury claimedthat the Financial Commission had committed wrong calculationin determining expenditure for salary and pension heads.

The Tripura Finance minister also said that he made theUnion Finance minister aware of the upper limit of Open MarketBorrowing (OMB) system.

Chowdhury said that the Planning Commission had approvedRs 367 crore as loan (OMB) but the Union Finance Ministrydenied the state of having it fully.

"They (Finance Ministry) has said only Rs 100 crore can becollected by OMB," Chowdhury said he told Mukherjee.

He, however, admitted that the state government wouldhave to divert plan outlay to meet the expenditure for salaryand pension of the about one lakh state government employees.