Shillong, Sept 7: For the general public of Meghalaya the phrase “lies, white lies and statistics” now holds a deeper meaning with conflicting statements and reports being bombarded from all directions on the state’s fiscal health.

The state’s finance department is fighting fire with fire leaving the general public singed and confused on whether the central government is right or the state on the state’s poor fiscal health or otherwise.

The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report, for the year ended 2023, painted a stunted picture of the state’s financial health. The report suggested the state is tottering with weak economic cues and on the brink of collapse, if corrective measures aren’t taken.

Promptly, the state’s public relation machinery went into a damage control mode and bombarded on the hapless public data that has added to the confusion. One of the clarifications provided by the finance department was that these were “old data” the CAG relied on.

Immediately after that Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, who also holds the finance portfolio, led from the front to give clarification on the state’s alleged poor fiscal health based on the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

He said: “Both (CAG report and finance department’s clarification) are correct. The question is how and where you place the numbers, which date you take the numbers from and which section you place certain expenditures…based on that, the numbers come out differently.”

He added CAG based its number from data available till June 2024 and since “calculations of GSDP is a continuous process”, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has issued new statistics, which states that “Meghalaya’s GSDP has grown 15.6 percent”.

Interestingly, Sangma said, “CAG was right at that point in time” based on the data available. Considering Sangma is being transparent and presenting the right picture, even then it shows that Meghalaya’s fiscal health up until the time the CAG based its report on was grim.

Now with the MoSPI numbers popping up right after the CAG’s report, it’s astounding that from being the “fourth highest” in the terms of outstanding liabilities-GSDP ratio among the “states and Union Territories in India” the state’s economic is growing satisfactorily.

Meghalaya is now merrily on its way to become a US 10 billion economy. MoSPI has updated Meghalaya’s GSDP as Rs. 40222 crore (2021-22) and Rs. 46551 crore (2022-23). The CAG reported the GSDP was Rs. 38785 crore (2021-22) and Rs. 42697 crore (2022-23.)

Now it’s one thing to get “old data” for a few months, but how and why the CAG failed to get the correct updated data of 2021-23, that’s quite a long period of time that’s involved.

Another issue is with the Auditor General’s office here, which compiles the CAG report. Few years back it was customary for the AG’s office to brief the press and explain the numbers of the report it tables on the floor of the House.

This transparent and informative interaction has now stopped for reasons best known to the AG’s office. The AG remains elusive and attempts to contact the top audit officer by the media is next to impossible. It functions in a secretive manner.

Another issue that needs introspection is how the MoSPI comes up with the numbers, not that they aren’t correct, just the methodology it adopts because the CAG bases its report on the audit of the different departments of the state. It’s an exhaustive exercise that involves some of the top minds in the field of economics in the country.

If the public is finding it difficult to wriggle out of this statistical maze, the finance department on Saturday pushed it further into a dead end. The finance department issued a clarification on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection of the state.

It countered a reported data of the Ministry of Finance on the dip in GST year on year collection from 2023 to 2024 in the state. The state finance department claimed its collection has increased by 5 percent during this period.

Till certain issues are not clarified with more transparency, it’s now anyone’s guess if Meghalaya would be a US 10 billion economy by 2027-28 or its LP school roofs continue to leak with neglect and apathy or people start repairing roads on their own for their better future.

Read: Meghalaya SDRF recovers body of minor from Umiam River

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