Budget will cater to all sections of society: Manpreet

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 20

“In spite of the fact that we received an “inheritance of loss” from the previous government, the Budget for the next fiscal will cater to all sections of society. The last administration vitiated the state’s economy by taking a term loan of Rs 31,000 crore for settling the legacy food credit account. I have nothing personal against Sukhbir Singh Badal, except for the fact that he saddled the state with a huge additional debt even when he knew that his party was not coming to power,” says Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal.

Talking to The Tribune, Manpreet says the state has already repaid Rs 10,000 crore of the debt, but Rs 20,000 crore of the remaining loan and another Rs 20,000 crore interest is yet to be paid. “This loan is to be paid over the next 17 years. Though the BJP government at the Centre had assured us that they will work out a formula for the loan to be borne in equal parts by the Food Corporation of India, the Union Government and the state, this can’t fructify as the previous SAD-BJP government had already signed an agreement that this food credit loan be turned into a term loan. There was no recourse,” he says.

Manpreet, who will be presenting the Budget on February 28, says, “The revenue and fiscal deficit are all within the range. If the state earned less this year, our spending too was much lesser. Even the market borrowings have been much less than our target of Rs 19,657 crore to be raised in the ongoing fiscal. We have raised Rs 9,000 crore till now and are trying to restrict the borrowings.” Though the debt would increase, it would not affect Punjab much as the state’s GDP would also increase, he says.

“I have managed to cut down on expenditure. We would have been in a much more comfortable position, had the Centre released the compensation for the GST and its arrears on time. Recently, I wrote to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, requesting that at least the arrears be made current. While our GST compensation of around Rs 2,000 crore is due, the arrears of Rs 1,660 crore are also pending from the Centre,” he adds.

The Finance Minister says the financial situation of the Government of India is in such disarray that for the first time, the 15th Finance Commission has submitted its interim report for just a year, instead of five. “The actual money to be devolved to Punjab will be less as the divisible pool size too has shrunk on the account of low tax collection,” he rues.

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