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Punjab FM Cheema debunks fund crunch talk, says ₹3,400 cr released for salary, power subsidy
Debunking the Opposition charge of fund crunch, Punjab FM Cheema said the financial health of the state is well maintained
With release of ₹3,400 crore for employee salaries, GPF and power subsidy, finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Wednesday said there was no fund crunch in the state.
Debunking the Opposition charge of financial crisis, Cheema said the financial health of the state is well maintained. Payments, including salaries of government employees, were delayed as the state government was gearing up for revival of special drawing facility (SDF) as per the consolidated sinking fund (CSF) and the guarantee redemption fund (GRF) guidelines and norms set by the Reserve Bank of India, he said in a statement. The salaries were delayed by a week.
The state government deposited ₹1,000 crore in CSF on September 6 with a two-year lock-in period to consolidate its finances and create adequate provision for disposal of debt commitments in future. “There is a requirement to show positive balance in treasury to contribute to CSF. The CSF contribution is not only an interest-bearing deposit but will also provide the state access to cheap capital. This deposit cannot be used for any purpose other than offsetting the state debt,” according to official sources.
The finance minister had, in his budget speech, specifically mentioned the contribution of ₹1,000 crore made by the AAP government within the first two months as part of the fiscal consolidation efforts.
Thanking government employees and other stakeholders for bearing with the state government, Cheema said that treasury has released ₹2,719 crore for salaries and GPF, besides ₹600 crore to PSPCL as power subsidy and ₹75 crore to Sugarfed. “Majority of the pending payments has been made with today’s release by the treasury and any other pending payments will be released within a few days,” he said, adding, “Delay in payments was all due to a financial exercise done to ensure financial welfare of the state in long-term”.
The AAP also hit out at the BJP, terming its claims of non-payment of government employees’ salaries as “blatant falsehood”. The salaries of class C and D employees were already credited and the rest were cleared on Wednesday, party leader Dinesh Chadha said while addressing the media.
BJP targets Mann govt
Earlier, Union law minister Kiren Rijiju attacked AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal over a news report that the party-led Punjab government is yet to clear the salaries of its employees for August. Rijiju said, “Kejriwal wants to make India World’s No 1 but what has he done to Punjab within a year?” He also claimed huge revenue is “extravagantly wasted” in Delhi, which is also ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party. “Delhi is National Capital, and the per capita income of Delhi is three times higher than the average per capita of India. Huge revenue is extravagantly wasted!” he tweeted.
In a statement, the state BJP general secretary Dr Subhash Sharma said it was unprecedented that a state government had failed to pay salaries to its staff. “This means that the government has gone completely bankrupt”, he observed, while maintaining that this reflects the complete financial mismanagement of this government.
Sharma appealed to the chief minister Bhagwant Mann to “not to get into the trap of Arvind Kejriwal who is trying to get his political fantasies financed by the Punjab government”.
“Isn’t it strange that while the AAP government in Punjab has money to splurge hundreds of crores of rupees on advertisement in the election bound states like Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, it does not have any money to pay salaries to the staff?” he asked.
