Shimla: At a time when the state along with the entire country is facing an economic crisis due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Himachal Pradesh government is under a total debt burden of ₹ 60,500 crores.
During the last three financial years, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur led Himachal Pradesh government has taken ₹ 18,916 crores loan from various agencies out of which Rs 8,578 crores have been repaid while ₹ 10,338 crores loan is yet to be paid.
Furthermore, debt liabilities of ₹ 2,206 crores have also been accrued on account of small Savings, Provident Fund etc. in Public Account during last three years (till 31-01-2021). The State Government has received ₹ 23,885 crores from the Central Government under different heads during March 2020 to February 2021.
This has been revealed in a reply to the question asked by former CM Virbhadra Singh and Jagat Negi, Congress Legislator from Kinnaur.
As per the reply, a loan of ₹ 4,932 crores was taken by the state government from various agencies in the financial year 2018-19 out of which ₹ 3179 crores have been repaid, in the year 2019-20, the state government took ₹ 7,405 crores loan from various agencies out of which ₹ 3, 257 crores have been repaid 4148 and in the financial year 2020-21 (till February 28, 2021), the state government raised ₹ 6,579 crores out of which ₹ 2,142 crores have been repaid.
Also Read: Himachal Pradesh Budget 2021-22
On March 6, while announcing the budget for the financial year 2021-22 in the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly, CM had said that out of every ₹ 100 to be spent by the state government in the financial year 2021-22, ₹ 10 will be spent on interest payment while ₹ 6.64 will be spent on loan repayment.
