Aman Sood
Tribune news service
Patiala, December 30
Asking the state to wake up to the reality of state’s fiscal condition and “hypocrisy of the central government”, PPCC president Navjot Singh Sidhu has revealed the dark side of the state economics.
Addressing a rally held by Sanaur Congress leader Harinder Pal Singh Harry Mann, Sidhu said the Congress would form the next government which would work for the betterment of the state and its residents.
“It is revealed that the income generated from tax collection and grant of central government schemes amounts to Rs 75,000 crore. However, salaries and pensions, interest expenditure on previous loans and repayment of principal loan amount itself comes to Rs 100,000 crore which is a fixed expense of the state. This has caused the state to be in continuous debt,” said Sidhu.
“Over and above this, the Centre is soon to discontinue the GST compensation grant in June 2022 which is set to cause a dramatic increase in the fiscal deficit of the state by Rs 18,000 crore annually. With additional losses of Rs 9,000 crore on VAT and Rs 5,000 crore on power subsidy, the state would be at the mercy of the Centre.
“The state must continue to get the GST compensation grant even after June 2022 for another five years, which is a matter of right for the people due to the faulty implementation of GST by the Centre,” he said.
“This has caused us to review the state governance. It is imperative at this stage to note that Punjab does not have a functional gram panchayat system. Elected sarpanches, panches, councils and corporators don’t have independence and authority to effectively use people’s power vested in them. For each action permission from the panchayat secretary is required causing the process to be power-centric as opposed to people- centric. Auditing must be done on such a sanction system at panchayat level and a democratic mechanism be adopted and power be decentralised across all 12,500 villages of Punjab.
“It is with the Punjab Model that the PPCC president will bring people’s power back to its people where it truly belongs and work towards reducing state debt and make it a flourishing state once again.”
