Punjab losing Rs 1,700 cr GDP daily, says Finance Minister

Chandigarh, March 25

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Amid Covid-19 lockdown in the country, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal today said the state’s GDP was suffering a loss of Rs 1,700 crore daily.

“Under the current scenario, our country is losing Rs 1 lakh crore GDP daily. The affected collections from petrol, diesel and alcohol alone were very big. Punjab is suffering Rs 1,700 crore GDP loss daily,” he said.

“Shortly, we will be faced with a bigger problem of handling the harvesting of wheat crop. Not just harvesting and storage, but even payments. We cannot postpone the harvest, but we don’t really know the definite solution at this moment,” he said.

Badal, while talking to The Tribune, said: “Punjab Government employees, however, need not bother about their salaries, at least for now.”

“We have an effective financial management system in place that can handle the current situation of salary disbursement. All input flows are functional for allowing our staff to work out their disbursement details in time,” he said.

“We have sufficient financial backing for the moment. Our Finance Secretary, along with his team, is working out a detailed paper on the worst case scenario in case we are not able to handle Covid-19 situation by April 16,” he said.

“I am hopeful that we will be able to tide over the current crisis well in time to avoid any salary delay to employees next time,” he said.