Punjab govt busy in preparing white paper on debt
Tuesday, 02/05/2017
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=176145&boxid=58800&uid=&dat=2017-05-02
Chandigarh : The Congress-led Punjab government is busy in preparing a white paper on the debt incurred during the SAD-BJP government in last 10 years.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh will produce the white paper in June ahead of the budget session. While the annual budget will be presented in the Vidhan Sabha session in June, Capt Amarinder will also produce a white paper on the debt of the state, before he took over as the CM of the state.
Sources disclosed that the debt figures provided by the officers of finance department to the Chief Minister are shocking. As of now, Amarinder Singh was under the impression that the state was under a debt of Rs 1.80 lakh crore but according to initial figures, Punjab is reeling under a debt of Rs 2.5 lakh crore. However, the exact debt amount can be ascertained only after the government comes up with the white paper.
After preparing the white paper, the officials concerned will submit it to the CM, who, after going through the documents, will make it public.
A bankrupt state is Rs 26,000 crore revenue deficit alone. Punjab has a total of Rs 31,000 crore worth of crop loans, of which Rs 18,000 crore is the capital sum and the rest is interest.
Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has already said that his government will fulfill all its commitments made to the public before elections. The government is thinking of coming up with ‘out-of-box’ schemes. “We are trying to do out-of-box thinking and the Finance Minister and his team are working on it and are discussing,” he said.
