Khattar hinted that hefty taxes could be imposed in the coming days. (Express photo)

Haryana is likely to lose Rs 4,600 crore revenue in April due to the ongoing coronavirus-triggered lockdown, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar Wednesday said.

“Kosh Muloo Dand,” said Khattar, citing the economic mantra occurring in Kautiliyan Arthshastra, which implies “the treasury is the backbone of administration”. Pointed that “the money in treasury comes from taxes paid by the public”, Khattar detailed the loss that the state is suffering due to the lockdown.

“Against the expectation of approximately Rs 2500 crore in GST, we will now be able to collect Rs. 1000 crore. Similarly from stamp duty, we were expecting to collect Rs 650 crore, but since all sale-purchase of land has been stalled, thus we won’t be getting a single penny out of it. We are expecting only about Rs 100 crore from Excise Duty as against nearly Rs 1,000 crore while from nearly Rs 782 crore from VAT collections, a maximum of Rs 100 crore is expected,” Khattar said in a video statement.

The chief minister said as against Rs 6,200 crore monthly revenue income from various sources, “a maximum of Rs 1,600 crore is expected due to the lockdown.”

Hinting that hefty taxes could be imposed in the coming days, Khattar said, “We need to prepare for approximately Rs. 4600 crore. Either the central government gives us some grant, or we will have to take loans”.

“Ultimately it is all public money. In older times, kings used to fill their treasury by attacking another kingdom or by other forceful means and then used to distribute it to their people. But, in today’s democratic times, the money has to be collected from the people and then has to be spent on the people. There is no other source from where it can be collected”.

Elaborating the mandatory expenses of the state government, Khattar said that nearly Rs 1,850 crore goes towards meeting salaries of government employees, Rs 750 crore towards pensions, Rs 650 crore towards social security pension that includes the money for the old, widows and physically challenged persons. An amount of Rs 1,750 crore goes towards servicing debts which the state has borrowed, while power subsidy comes to around Rs 575 crore.