SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 13 February 2025, Thursday |

Indian states need greater financial aid from federal government: S&P report

Indian states’ weaknesses outweigh their strengths as they battle the pandemic and they need financial support from the federal government, which is already dealing with drastically reduced revenue, according to S&P Global Ratings.

The COVID-19 pandemic could increase budget deficits and indebtedness of state governments as spending needs to exceed revenue collected, S&P Global analysts YeeFarn Phua and Ruchika Malhotra said in a report. The federal government and the Reserve Bank of India will remain key pillars for states’ fiscal framework and performance, they said.

The pandemic has ravaged revenues of both the federal and state governments and threatens to slow the economy’s recovery from an unprecedented contraction last year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is on course to borrow about $22 billion this year to pay states for their loss of income due to a shortfall in a nationwide consumption tax collection.

Still, in the next two years Indian states will struggle to consolidate their deficits, which will run at more than 25 percent of revenue, according to the analysts, who expect a meaningful consolidation in the year ending March 2024.

That could affect the pricing and eventual cost of bonds sold by states, the S&P analysts wrote.

“COVID-19 will create some permanent scars on states’ balance sheets,” Phua and Malhotra said in the report. “As the central government’s revenues stabilize further and gains from tax reforms start to materialize, we expect it to pass on some of the benefits to states via shared taxes and grants.”

    Source:
  • alarabiya