Khattar govt blames Hooda regime for Rs 20,000 crore revenue loss

CHANDIGARH: Haryana BJP government has blamed previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government's economic policies for loss of Rs 20,000 crore to the state exchequer. Releasing white paper on state finances, Haryana finance minister Captain Abhimanyu said that the percentage of tax revenue to GSDP (gross state domestic product) declined from 7.8% in 2004-05 to 6.6% in 2013-14.
"The percentage should have ideally gone up. Even if it had been sustained at the same level, the state would have earned additional revenue of Rs 20,000 crore. In other words one can say that the state suffered a notional loss of Rs 20,000 crore," said Abhimanu.
"The taxes have dried up in Haryana, their base has shrunk, and there was under-recovery of the cost of most government services during the last 10 years. The resultant shortfall in revenue generation has made the state over dependent on central grants and borrowings," he added.
Capt Abhimanyu said that the white paper has pointed to the declining trend in both the state's own tax revenue and non-tax revenue between 2004-05 and 2013-14. During the ten-year period, about 90% of the receipts were spent on revenue expenditure and 10% on capital expenditure, he said.
However, former finance minister Sampat Singh retorted by saying that the economic policies adopted by the Hooda government were best and multiple factors contribute for GSDP. Another Congress leader and former chief parliamentary secretary Ran Singh Mann said that the BJP government was just trying to prepare ground to impose more taxes on the people of Haryana by projecting a "fake picture" of state revenues. "It shows that they don't want to fulfill their poll promises," Mann added.