Shimla JAN 2,2025
Himachal government annual earning is less than the expenditure . The government is earning maximum Rs. sixteen thousand crores and the expenditure is Rs. 27 thousand crores annually.
Government’s expenditure is more than one and a half times its income. On top of that, the debt burden is huge. This merger can be estimated from the figures. The state government has taken a loan of around Rs 28 thousand crore in two years. Out of this, Rs 10 thousand crores have been spent on repaying the interest on previous loans. The government has returned Rs 8 thousand crore as the principal amount of the previous loan. CM Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu himself has shared these figures with the media. In a way, the economic vehicle of the state government is running on the basis of debt. CM Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu has claimed that his government has collected additional revenue of Rs 2200 crore since coming to power. The biggest challenge for the government is the expenditure of Rs 2000 crore every month on salaries and pensions. This is the reason why the financial crisis of Himachal government was in the headlines in the year 2024.
Now the beginning of the new year i.e. the year 2025 has been good for the government led by Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu. Salary and pension have been paid on the very first date. In this way, this news is a sigh of relief for the government. With this, now the eyes are fixed on the sanction of loan limit for the last quarter from the Central Government. The central government sanctions the loan limit from April to December. The loan limit for the last quarter i.e. January to March is approved separately. The loan limit is approved by the Center in the first fortnight of January 2025. At present Sukhwinder government has taken a loan of Rs 500 crore in advance.
This advance amount will be deducted from the loan limit of the last quarter. The government hopes that it will get at least Rs 1600 crore from the Center for the quarter from January to March. In such a situation, due to deduction of Rs 500 crore advance, he will have an amount of Rs 1100 crore to take loan in the last two months i.e. in February and March. Apart from this, the time till March will be spent by including share in central taxes, money from revenue deficit grant and income from own resources.
It has become clear from the above figures that the time till March will be a time of economic drag in some way or the other. There will be a new loan limit restriction from April 2025. It is expected that this new limit will be up to Rs 7000 crore. Last time the limit from April 2024 to December 2024 was around Rs 6218 crore. There is a slight increase every year.
After this loan limit sanction from the Centre, the state government will get a sigh of relief. After that, the matter of concern for the government will be the decreasing revenue deficit grant. In the new financial year, this grant will be 52 percent less than the last time. In this financial year, RDG will be Rs 3257 crore for the year. The report presented before the Finance Commission shows that in the financial year 2025-2026, an amount of Rs 15862 crore is required for salaries and Rs 10800 crore for pension. If both are combined then this expenditure for the whole year will be Rs 26722 crore. At the same time, if we talk about earnings, the state government will get only Rs 17044 crore in a year from all the resources in 2025-26.
Former IAS officer KR Bharti, who has been continuously working on economic matters, says, “Of course, the vehicle cannot run without debt, but it has become very important to find new sources of income.” TC Dhiman, who was the Deputy Accountant General in the Office of the Principal Accountant, believes that the government needs to pay attention to the means of irrigation and the agriculture sector. CM Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu says that the government has worked on new areas of revenue. Its results are beginning to be seen.
Senior media person Dhananjay Sharma says, “Some new centers of hope are visible from the government. They include Shanan Project, outstanding arrears of BBMB projects, increase in electricity rates for industries etc. Shanan Project alone will be implemented if Himachal gets its rights. Will give annual income of Rs 200 croreArrears worth Rs 4500 crore of BBMB projects are to be received. In such a situation, the situation may improve in the coming time, but the dependence on loans will not reduce
