Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukh on Friday announced that the Himachal Pradesh government has raised loans worth Rs 21,366 crore and repaid Rs 5,856 crore in the last 20 months.
In a written reply to Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sudheer Sharma, Sukhu informed Parliament that the net borrowing raised by the government was Rs 15,502 crore. Further, he said the government has raised borrowings of Rs 6,897 crore from December 15, 2022 to March 31, 2023, Rs 10,521 crore in 2023-2024 and Rs 3,948 crore from April 1, 2024 to July 31, 2024.
The government will repay Rs 1,097 billion in 2022-23, Rs 3,481 billion in 2023-24 and Rs 1,286 billion in 2024-25, taking the net borrowings to Rs 15,502 billion, he added.
According to the information, the net borrowings raised by the government was Rs 580 billion in the last three-and-a-half months of fiscal 2022-23, Rs 704 billion in fiscal 2023-24 and Rs 266.2 billion in fiscal 2024-25.
During Thursday’s parliamentary session, Premier Sukuu said the province’s financial situation is not good.
“The financial position of the state is not good. There are many reasons for this. Revenue deficit grant, which was Rs 8,058 crore, has been reduced to Rs 6,258 crore. Next year, in 2025-26, it will be reduced by another Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 3,257 crore,” the statement said.
The Chief Minister claimed that out of around Rs 9,042 crore of the PDNA, the Central government has not remitted any amount to the states. The statement mentioned that the amount of NPS contribution from PFRDA has not reached the state governments. Further, the Chief Minister alleged that GST compensation to states has been stopped from 2022 onwards. “NPS contribution of around Rs 9,200 crore from PFRDA has not been received from the Union Government. GST compensation has been stopped from 2022 onwards, due to which states have seen a reduction of around Rs 2,500-3,000 crore. Thanks to OPS, states’ borrowings have also been reduced by around Rs 2,000 crore. Addressing these issues is not easy,” the statement said.
The Chief Minister also slammed the previous BJP state government, saying, “The situation in the state is not good. If anyone is responsible for this, it is the previous BJP government. As per the 15th Finance Commission, they had received around Rs 1 trillion from revenue shortfall grant but since then this grant has been reduced.”
