‘Will fulfil pre-poll promise of monthly allowance to women soon’

Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Cheema, while announcing the Budget proposals for 2025-26, said he was happy that he had managed to go in for fiscal consolidation this year, keeping the state’s revenue deficit at 2.51 per cent and fiscal deficit at 3.84 per cent of the GSDP. Talking to Ruchika M Khanna, Cheema said he had tried to meet aspirations of all sections of the society. Excerpts from the interview:

What was your focus while preparing the Budget?

My main focus was to concentrate on weaning away our youth from drug menace. Never ever has an attempt been made by any other government in the past to deal with the issue. Rather, the drug mafia prospered under the Akali-BJP and Congress regimes. That is why I am calling my Budget a roadmap for “Badalda Punjab”.

What are the other priority areas?

We have laid a lot of emphasis on sports, education and health sectors. In the healthcare sector, we have extended the free health insurance to all families in Punjab and increased the cover for cashless treatment in all hospitals from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. This shows why Punjab is a welfare state.

The pre-poll promise of Rs 1,000 allowance to every woman hasn’t been fulfilled. Will AAP government ever do that?

Of course, we are morally bound to fulfil our promise made to our sisters in Punjab. The Department of Social Security and Development of Women and Children as well as the Finance Department are working on the finer details of the scheme. We gave five guarantees before elections. All other guarantees, including 300 units of free power, increasing honorarium to families of martyrs and improving school and education infrastructure have been fulfilled. This will also be fulfilled very soon.

No new taxes have been imposed, but you have promised to earn an additional Rs 8,000 crore. How will you achieve that?

I am relying on buoyancy in tax collection. You would have seen how we have managed to surpass our targets in GST, VAT and excise duty collection. By ensuring better tax compliance and plugging loopholes, we will be easily able to meet the revenue receipt targets.