Punjab’s revenue receipts fall 10% in 2023-24

Ruchika M Khanna

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Chandigarh, May 12

The Punjab Government has not been able to meet its target for revenue receipts during financial year 2023-24, falling short in collections by almost 10 per cent. As a result, the revenue deficit is up from the set target by Rs 1,827 crore.

The largest shortfall has been registered in the grants-in-aid and contributions (states receive from the Centre), which fell short by 29.75 per cent of the target.

However, the state’s share from the Union taxes increased by Rs 1,681.22 crore, which is over and above the target of Rs 18,457.57 crore.

Often derided for relying on market borrowings to meet the committed liabilities, the total borrowings by the Punjab Government in 2023-24 were Rs 31,435.21 crore against a target of raising Rs 34,784.15 crore. With this, the total debt burden on the state, as on March 31, 2024, was Rs 3,44,193.45 crore. The AAP government also paid Rs 20,123.58 crore as interest on its borrowings.

Even non-tax revenue collected by the state has shown a shortfall in collections by Rs 797.86 crore. The tax collections during the fiscal touched Rs 67,391.55 crore down by Rs 2,901 crore from the target of Rs 70,293.06 crore.

Interestingly, the tax revenue saw a massive jump in February and March (Rs 7,865.27 crore and Rs 5,908.63 crore), while the non-tax revenue collection went up to Rs 2,346.95 crore in March alone.

The state government has also spent 6.50 per cent less than what it was targeting in the Budget during the last fiscal. The figures reveal that against targeted revenue expenditure of Rs 1,23,440.91 crore, the government spent Rs 1,15,400.26 crore. The government also managed to clear the power subsidy of Rs 18,770.31 crore, besides clearing all its salary and pension liabilities.

However, most of the revenue earned by the state continued to go into meeting the committed liabilities. Only Rs 4,826.39 crore was spent on creating infrastructure (capital assets), which is just 46.96 per cent of what the government had initially proposed to spend as capital expenditure.