EVALUATING FISCAL PERFORMANCE OF ANDHRA PRADESH USING COMPOSITE INDEX MODEL

In the recent past, the ailing situation of finances of various states in India assumed utmost importance and attracted the attention of experts, analysts, policymakers and regulatory bodies. Many states initiated the reforms process to revitalize the poor condition of state finances. One such state which introduced reforms on the fiscal front in the mid-1990s is Andhra Pradesh. The finances of the state has deteriorated over the last two decades, eventually leading to a fiscal crisis in the mid-1990s. In the light of this, many researchers, in the last one decade, have studied the finances of Andhra Pradesh. But, there are no works which have actually measured and ranked the fiscal performance of the state. This paper attempts to evaluate the manner in which various important fiscal parameters of the state have behaved in the last one decade. The performance of the state on the fiscal front is measured using a composite index through which the state was ranked for its performance for each year. The author also analyzes the important aspects such as expenditure management, debt management and revenue raising efforts initiated by the state in the last one decade.