Blitz Bureau
SHIMLA: Moving away from indulging in and perpetuating irrational, competitive and political populism, the Himachal Pradesh Government appears to be finding a judicious road map by rationalising subsidies-freebies for reviving the state’s financially stressed economy.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on September 1 that his Government was rationalising the subsidies extended to affluent people to improve the revenues of the state.
Defending the decisions to waive off subsidies in power and water, he said, “The previous governments have given several subsidies to the people. We have been getting calls from the people that they want to give up their power subsidy as they pay a lot of income tax. Others say they don’t want to consume free water.
We are looking into it and moving forward with discipline. Such measures are having a desired effect and our revenue is increasing.” The State’s total debt ballooned from Rs 47,906 crore in 2018 to Rs 76,651 crore in 2023; lamented the challenges his Government inherited from the ‘spree of wasteful expenditure’ practised by the previous BJP regime.
He said that the state isn’t in financial distress as is being feared following the decision to defer the salary and perks of ministers, chief parliamentary secretaries and chairmen of boards and corporations. “The talk of the state wandering into the financial mess or crisis is not true. All this is a part of the reforms and to instil some discipline among all sections of society,” the CM said.
Following the announcement of the deferment of salary and perks, the speculation is rife that the financial situation of the state had deteriorated to such extent that the salary and pensions of the Government employees and pensioners would also be delayed by at least a few days this month.
Rejecting all such speculations and theories, the CM further said that all efforts and work of his Government were directed at making the state selfsufficient by 2027 and the most prosperous state in the country by 2032. “There’s an urgent need to reform the system running for the last 40 years, and I am trying to bring in reforms. And these reforms are improving our economy at a good pace. But when such reforms are carried out, some problems do crop up,” he said.
