Shimla, Sep 30 (IANS) Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh of the Congress Sunday blamed the BJP government for the state’s poor financial health.
Due to the mismanagement by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government state’s loan liability this fiscal is likely to touch Rs.30,000 crore, he said.
The five-time chief minister said, in a statement, that the financial burden was a serious threat to the state’s development.
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal of the BJP has blamed the central government and the implementation of the pay commission recommendations – raising wages of government staff – for the state’s poor finances.
He linked the crunch to erroneous recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission, which deals with the share of states in central tax proceeds.
Virbhadra Singh said that the surplus budgets of the previous Congress government of Rs.191 crore in 2006-07 and Rs.850 crore in 2007-08 turned into a revenue deficit of Rs.130 crore in the first year of the BJP rule (2008-09) and the deficit increased to Rs.519 crore in 2009-10 and Rs.1,235 crore in 2010-11.
“In order to meet the increasing revenue deficit, the BJP government had to resort to increased borrowings,” the Congress leader said.
According to him, the cumulative debt liability of the state had increased to Rs.26,415 crore in 2010-11 from Rs.19,000 crore in 2007-08.
