87 pc decline in Himachal’s revenue in April: CM

RESTARTING ECONOMY

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the economy of Himachal Pradesh. However, its impact in the hill state will be bigger, as the tourism sector has been devastated — tourism contributes around 7 per cent to the state GDP and is also one of the major sources of employment. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, who also holds the Finance portfolio, says though the state economy is being impacted, he will not cut down on capital expenditure. In an e-mail interaction with Vijay C Roy, he says that non-productive and wasteful expenditure will, however, be curbed.

To what extent, the lockdown has affected the economy of the state? How much revenue was collected in April this year?

The lockdown has adversely affected the economy of the state. There has been 87 per cent decline in the state's revenue in April this year, compared to April 2019. Against the expected receipts of Rs 883 crore, only Rs 116 crore has been collected — a shortfall of Rs 767 crore. The state has suffered a loss of about Rs 16,000 crore in GSDP up to April 30.

Will you be able to achieve the budgeted revenue target for the current fiscal? What kind of revenue shortfall do you foresee?

No doubt, coronavirus will keep hurting the world economy for quite some time. Yes, we see a lack of buoyancy in the state's revenue. However, as the lockdown impact eases, we expect the economy to pick up.

The pandemic will continue for a few months, according to experts. How do you plan to cope with the revenue shortfall? Are you planning to cut down on capital expenditure?

We will not cut down on capital expenditure. However, non-productive and wasteful expenditure will be curbed.

How many manufacturing units are there in Himachal and how many of these are functional at the moment?

There are 55,496 units registered with the Department of Industries. It can safely be said that 25 per cent of the total registered units are in the service sector; hence total manufacturing units are around 41,600. On April 30, more than 2,900 MSME and large units with 64,000 workers were functional, besides many micro and village industries.

What is the status of pharma industry in the state as far as operations are concerned? How is your government facilitating it to resume full production at the earliest?

The Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area is known as the pharma hub. There are about 589 pharma units in the state and out of these, 439 are working. There are 381 units ancillary to the pharma and food sectors and of these, 350 are functional. To help them resume full operations, the government has issued them online curfew passes and allowed inter-district movement of workers and logistics. The units are also allowed to work on a three-shift basis to ramp up production.

What lessons have been learnt from Covid?

The coronavirus pandemic has surprised the whole world. No one had expected such a thing to happen. The natural calamity has forced policymakers to ponder over how to create better healthcare facilities at the grassroots level. It has also compelled us to frame our developmental policies and programmes keeping in view man-made and natural disasters.

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