Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday said that due to strenuous efforts of the Aam Aadmi government the state has been transformed from ‘fiscal deficit’ to ‘fiscal profit’ state by massive generation of revenue.
Interacting with the media persons here at Punjab Bhawan, the Chief Minister said that though the previous governments had always thought of their own vested interests his Government has pulled all plugs to enhance the revenue in state. He said that these efforts have produced desired results as the state has been able to generate maximum revenue. Bhagwant Mann said that the honest government in state has changed the direction of fund flow from private houses of leaders to government exchequer.
The Chief Minister said that though the state government had launched the Excise policy by delay of three months but it has fetched revenue worth Rs 8841 crore in the state. He said that this is Rs 2587 crore more than last year which was roughly an increase of 41.41%. Bhagwant Mann said that the target for next financial year is Rs 9754 crore adding that this will also be achieved.
He said that earlier the state was worst performing in GST collection but now with a hike of 16.6% Punjab is one of the top most performing state in GST collection. Bhagwant Mann said that the collection of last fiscal was Rs 18126 crore as compared to Rs 15542 crore of its previous year.
He said that the state government has taken a new experiment on giving an exemption of 2.25 % on stamp duty for land registration. He said that due to this in month of March revenue collection has enhanced from Rs 339 crore in February to Rs 658.68 crore.
Bhagwant Mann said that for the first time in history of state the government has released all the pending subsidy worth Rs 20,200 crore.
He said that out of this subsidy Rs 9063.79 crore has been given to Agriculture sector, Rs 8285.90 crore has been paid on domestic subsidies and Rs 2911 crore has been provided to industrial sector. He said that the state government has inherited a debt of Rs 9020 crore from previous governments and the state government has is also repaying the inherited loan through instalments worth Rs 1894 crore. Bhagwant Mann said that the state government has so far provided 3538 jobs to the youth in the power sector.