Cutting debt our achievement: Punjab FM Harpal Cheema

With a clear focus on following the fiscal path laid down under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, Finance Minister Harpal Cheema says that his biggest achievement this year has been on reducing the state’s debt burden by 4 per cent. In an interview with Ruchika M Khanna, he talks about his mandate for the Budget, his achievements and the way ahead to resurrect the state’s economy.

More co-educational institutes

In an effort towards promoting technical education, the government has converted five Government Polytechnic Colleges for Women into co-educational institutes with a view to enhancing admissions and ensuring the optimum use of the existing infrastructure.

Rs 20,200 cr power subsidy bill

The power subsidy bill of the Bhagwant Mann-led state government is all set to zoom to Rs 20,200 crore, with an outlay of Rs 9,330 crore to be used for providing free power to the agriculture sector and Rs 7,780 crore for free power to 90 per cent domestic households.

Rs 640 cr for food, beverage industry

Rs 390 crore has been allocated for the purchase of sugarcane from farmers, Rs 250 crore for an automated beverage unit in Hoshiarpur, chilli-processing centre at Abohar, value-adding processing facility in Jalandhar and ready-to-eat food manufacturing unit in Fatehgarh Sahib.

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Turban museum for Anandpur Sahib: A turban museum will come up in Anandpur Sahib that will showcase the importance of turban in Indian culture. Under the ‘Parshad’ scheme, development works have already started in Chamkaur Sahib.

The ‘inheritance of loss’ that we received from the previous governments had to be turned into ‘inheritance of profit’

What was the mandate from your party and the Chief Minister for making the Budget proposals for 2024-25?

The mandate given to me was clear that I have to do everything within my means for resurrecting the economy of the state. The ‘inheritance of loss’ that we received from the previous governments had to be turned into ‘inheritance of profit’. Investments are to be made in people-oriented schemes, so we have made maximum outlays for education, health, infrastructure and agriculture.

Is Punjab in a vicious debt trap, considering we are borrowing money to repay old debts and also to meet our expenditure?

I would say that we were pushed into the debt trap by the previous Congress and SAD-BJP governments. They spent recklessly, looted the state’s coffers to fill their own pockets. On the other hand, we are not only repaying the old debt, but also paying the interest on the debt. In 2023-24, we have repaid debt of Rs 16,626 crore and in 2024-25, we will repay loan of Rs 12,866.50 crore.

Why have you failed to give the Rs 1,000 financial assistance to women, when the AAP government in Delhi has done it?

Before the Vidhan Sabha elections, the AAP had given many guarantees to the people of Punjab. As soon as we came to power, we started making Schools of Eminence and increased the assistance given to families of martyred soldiers to Rs 1 crore. We started 300 units of free power scheme to domestic consumers and 90 per cent of these consumers get zero bills. As soon as we have the fiscal space, we will fulfil this guarantee made to the women of Punjab.

You have dithered from imposing any new tax in all three Budgets announced by the AAP government? How will you go for resource mobilisation to meet the growing expenditure?

As a responsible government, we do not believe in burdening the masses with additional taxes. Our governance philosophy is to give back to the people by initiating several development schemes. For additional resource mobilisation, the taxation department has collaborated with IIT-Hyderabad to collect data on tax evasion. The Tax Intelligence Unit (TIU) is increasing the compliance rate through different schemes like ‘Bill Leyao, Inaam Pao’. The focus is on plugging loopholes in tax net and increasing our tax base. 

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