Cong walkout on FRBM Act amendment - Times of India

Shimla: Noisy scenes were witnessed in the state legislative assembly on Thursday during the passing of Himachal Pradesh Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Bill, 2021 as the opposition accused the government of deceiving the people by increasing the limit of taking loan from 3% to 5% of the state’s gross domestic product. In protest, the opposition later walked out of the House while raising slogans. In the absence of opposition, the bill was passed in the assembly.

CPM MLA Rakesh Singha, Leader of opposition Mukesh Agnihotri, Congress MLAs Jagat Singh Negi (Kinnaur), Harshvardhan Singh (Shillai) and Asha Kumari (Dalhousie) had opposed the proposal to pass the bill. In the absence of chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, urban development minister Suresh Bhardwaj had introduced the bill in the House. Bhardwaj said increasing the limit of taking loan was only for one year but Agnihotri called it as black day in the history of state even as Singha walked out after speaking in the House.

Speaking to media persons outside the assembly, Agnihotri said the state government, by virtue of strength in the House, is passing the bills and taking loans instead of seeking financial help from the Centre. He said that nowhere in the budget was it mentioned that more loans would be taken. He said that in its five-year term, the BJP government would be taking Rs 35,000 crore loan.

“We had said that the cabinet should reconsider the bill or it should be sent to a select committee or government should seek financial package for the state from the Union Government. If needed, opposition too would accompany the government to Delhi to seek financial package,” he said. Raising expenses by increasing debt is not a solution as the state has a debt burden of over Rs 60,000 crore, he added.

Bhardwaj said Himachal has its own act and this is a technical matter. He said that it is a matter of regularising the 2019-20 expenditure and this is a one-time relaxation in fiscal deficit proposed for 2019-20. He said that present government is rectifying the mistake of the previous Congress regime. The minister alleged that Congress has plunged the state into a debt trap as under the previous Congress regime, fiscal deficit of GSDP was 3.60% in 2013-13, 4.23% in 2013-14 and 4.05% in 2014-15. Provisions of FRBM Act were violated by not making the required amendments and thr now state government has rectified it by bringing the amendment, he said.



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Published On: Thu, 18 Mar 2021 22:55:00 GMT