Chandigarh, March 2: Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal while addressing a press conference here today took a dig at Congress Leader Sh. Bhupinder Singh Hooda for raising questions regarding State Government’s debt liability. Mocking at Sh. Hooda for having poor knowledge about debt figures, Sh. Manohar Lal said that when Congress government had left, State Government had a debt liability of Rs 98,000 crore.
While counting debt during Hooda’s tenure, Sh. Manohar Lal said, “Bhupinder Singh Hooda always says that when his tenure ended, then the debt liability of State Government was Rs. 60,000 crore. When BJP came to power in the year 2014-15, under the Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme, debt amount of Rs. 27,860 crore taken by Power Discoms was included in the government's debt, so that the Power Discoms were not overburdened. Due to this, the total debt of the government was increased. He said that by November, 2014-15, when the Congress tenure ended debt liability was of Rs 70,900 crore and if the loan amount of Rs. 27,860 crore taken by Power Discoms is added to this then the total debt comes to Rs 98,000 crore. In this way, the Opposition actually gives wrong figures by not including Rs 38,000 crore in the entire debt left by them.
State Domestic Product (GSDP) has also doubled
Divulging details about State GDP graph, Sh. Manohar Lal said that in last six years, GSDP has increased two-fold. When the Congress tenure ended in the year 2014-15, Haryana’s GDP was Rs 3.99 lakh crore. Now it has increased to Rs 8.58 lakh crore. Therefore the State debt is within the limit of 25 per cent of GSDP as mandated. At present, State Government’s debt is 22.8 percent. Under Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, loans up to three per cent can be taken and this year the Centre Government had raised it to five per cent, but Haryana has taken loans within its limits, shared Sh. Manohar Lal. The Chief Minister said that at the time of Congress, debt liability was in proportion to GSDP and even now the State Government’s debt is within the same proportion.
An amount of Rs 7,000 crore Revenue collected from Liquor
The Chief Minister said that Excise Revenue has doubled in BJP Government’s regime. In the year 2013-14, an amount of Rs. 3,697 crore was collected from Excise Duty. In 2014-15 the revenue was increased to Rs. 3,470 crore, in 2015-16 Rs. 4,300 crore was collected, in 2016-17 Rs. 4,600 crore was collected, in 2017-18 an amount of Rs. 4,900 crore was collected and in 2018-19 Rs 6,000 crore was collected. While in the year 2019-20 an amount of Rs 6,343crore was collected and in the current year, whooping revenue of Rs. 7,000 crore has been collected so far. These figures clearly show that State revenue has steadily increased and doubled in past six years.
An amount of Rs 36,000 crore collected from GST-VAT
The Chief Minister said that in the year 2013-14 the GST-VAT collection was Rs. 16,700 crore, Rs. 18,900 crore in 2014-15, Rs. 21,000 crore in 2015-16, Rs. 23,400 crore in 2016-17, Rs. 26,400 crore in 2017-18, Rs. 27,800 crore in 2018-19, Rs. 32,600 crore in 2019-20 and Rs. 36,000 crore in 2020-21.
Destroying produce will bring losses to farmers only
While urging the farmers not to destroy their crops and also not to sell milk at inflated prices, Chief Minister said that in a democracy holding a peaceful protest is everyone’s right but right now the farmers are being misguided to take such kind of drastic steps, which are eventually going to push them on the receiving end. I urge my farmer brothers to refrain from taking such decisions which will not only affect the common man but will also, bring a bad name to them as well.
Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Sh. D.S Dhesi, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, Sh. T.V.S.N Prasad, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister and Director General, Information Public Relations and Languages Department, Dr. Amit Agrawal, Adviser, Public Safety, Grievances, Good Governance and overall incharge, CM Window, Sh. Anil Rao, Media Adviser to Chief Minister, Sh. Amit Arya and other senior officials were present on this occasion.