Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Monday accused the previous SAD dispensation of leaving the state with a “massive debt” and asked them to stage a sit-in in front of the prime minister’s office to bring some relief for debt-ridden farmers.
The finance minister’s remark came after the SAD alleged that the ruling Congress was making “excuses” for not waiving the entire farm debt in the State.
“We were not aware of the grave financial position of the State (when the SAD left office). A day before counting of poll results last year, the Akalis (who were then in power) converted Rs 31,000 crore of cash credit limit (CCL) into term loan,” Manpreet claimed.
“How was I to know that state was left with unpaid liabilities of Rs 13,000 crore and they (SAD) issued Rs 17,000 crore of UDAY bonds,” the finance minister said.
A day before, the SAD had asked Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for allegedly reneging on his promise of extending entire debt relief to farmers.
“I want to ask the SAD and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is part of BJP government at the Centre, to hold a dharna in front of PM Narendra Modi’s office to demand waiving of Rs 31,000 crore CCL-related debt and then (if the demand is accepted), we will release the entire Rs 31,000 crore to farmers,” Manpreet said.
The opposition had also questioned whether the Congress was not aware of Punjab’s fiscal health before making the promise of waiving entire farm debt.
The Chief Minister had said that the his government could not extend the debt waiver scheme to more farmers and waive loans of over Rs 2 lakh because of “lack of support” from the Centre and the financial problems inherited from the previous SAD-BJP dispensation.
Manpreet claimed that Punjab was saddled with Rs 31,000 crore of CCL-related debt. “We are paying Rs 3,240 crore per annum as interest on this debt and it has to be paid for 20 years,” he said.
The State Government had taken up the matter with Centre to resolve this issue, the finance minister said.