MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE (SHRI NAMO NARAIN MEENA)
(a) As per the Reserve Bank of India`s recent publication ``State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2011-12`, the aggregate outstanding debt to National Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratios of States at the end-March 2010-11 (Revised Estimates) and end-March 2011-12 (Budget Estimates) were 23.5% and 22.5% respectively. These are lower than the benchmark ratios of 26.6% and 26.1%, recommended by the Thirteenth Finance Commission (FC-XIll) for these years respectively. These are also lower than the Debt/GDP target of 24.3% recommended by the FC- XIII for 2014-15.
As regards outstanding debt to Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) ratio is concerned, the States
having ratio higher than FC-XIII projections for each of the last three years, is at Annexure-I.
(b) As compiled from Statement 1 of Reserve Bank of India`s recent publication `State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2011 -12`, the details of percentage of revenue expenditure of States spent on paying interest liabilities is at Annexure-ll.
(c) & (d) As per the assessment of the Reserve Bank of India, in its recent publication `State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2011-12`, social sector expenditure by the States, has shown improvement since 2008-09. Social sector expenditure as percentage of total expenditure has increased from 37.6% in 2008-09 to 38.7% in 2009-10 and estimated at 40% each in 2010
-11 (Revised Estimates) and 2011-12 (Budget Estimates).