praveen

MUMBAI: A 28 per cent growth in revenue helped Maharashtra Government to wipe out deficits clocking a Rs 810 crore revenue surplus in 2006-07 as against a whopping deficit of Rs 3,842 crore a year ago.

"The augmentation in the state's tax and non-tax revenue receipts led to a revenue surplus," a Comptroller and Auditor (CAG) report revealed on Friday.

During 2006-07, revenue receipts of the Government increased to Rs 62,195 crore while expenditure stood at Rs 61,385 crore, up by 17 per cent over 2005-06.

"The reduction in net loan disbursed along with the revenue surplus resulted in reduction of fiscal deficit by Rs 6,078 crore during 2006-07 over the previous year," it said.

Fiscal liabilities, however, increased from Rs 1,42,491 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 1,57,039 crore in 2006-07 and stood at 32 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) as on March 31, 2007.

CAG, however, has expressed its concern over negiligble return on investments made by the Maharashtra government and low productivity in the state.

"Although, it is not uncommon for the State to borrow for creating and strengthening its social and economic infrastructure, but the low productivity and negligible return on the government investments relative to their cost of borrowings remained a cause of concern," said the report.