White Paper on fiscal health a bundle of lies, says Jai Ram

Shimla, September 24

The BJP today rejected the White Paper laid by Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri in Vidhan Sabha, on the fiscal health of the state as a “bundle of lies”.

“People are asking the government about the 10 guarantees. The government has no answers and to divert public’s attention, they have come up with White Paper. It’s a bundle of lies,” said Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur here today.

“Many figures in White Paper do not even match with the figures read out by the Chief Minister in his Budget speech. Many figures are contradictory. The BJP rejects this document, and it should be thrown into a dustbin,” he added.

The former Chief Minister sounded particularly peeved over the charges of his government leaving behind massive loan liabilities and launched a counterattack in which he blamed the Congress governments for the poor fiscal health of the state. “The Congress government increased the loan liability from Rs 28,000 crore to Rs 48,000 crore from 2012 to 2017. It’s an increase of 66 per cent, while the increase during our tenure was 48 per cent,” Thakur claimed.

He further said the fiscal mismanagement in the state started under the Congress government, which ruled from 1993 to 1998. “The then Congress government raised a loan of Rs 1,000 crore from the market in the name of electricity board. The amount was huge at that time and there was no particular need to take such big loan,” said Thakur.

Thakur further said that when his government left the office in December, the loan on the state was Rs 69, 622 crore, not Rs 75,000 crore as the government says. “And by adding other liabilities to it, the government has increased the figure to Rs 95,000 crore,” said Thakur, adding that the incumbent government itself has raised a loan of Rs 8,000 crore in just nine months.

Questioning why there’s no mention of financial mismanagement, as alleged in the White paper, in audit reports, Thakur said the revenue expenditure during his government’s term was much less compared to the Congress governments. “Also we never breached the GSDP limit while raising loans. The maximum loan we raised was 3.7 per cent of the GSDP, while the limit is 6 per cent,” he said.

As for investor meet held by his government, Thakur said these were held to attract private investment to the state. “In two ground breaking ceremonies, MoUs worth 13,000 crore and 28,000 were signed and work on projects worth Rs 8,000 crore have already started. Besides, the Centre gave us Rs 10,000 crore for Investors Meet,” he said, adding that the Investors Meet was held during the tenure of the previous Congress government as well but not even a single MoU was signed.

Figures don’t match

Many figures in White Paper do not even match with the figures read out by the Chief Minister in his Budget speech. Many figures are contradictory. The BJP rejects this document, and it should be thrown into a dustbin. — Jai Ram Thakur, former chief minister