Seven years after he was unceremoniously removed as Punjab Finance Minister by the then SAD-BJP Government for his stand against agri-subsidy, Manpreet Singh Badal volte-faced on the issue.
Manpreet, who made an impressive comeback as the custodian of the state exchequer in the Congress Government this time, maintained that the Capt Amarinder Singh’s government would continue with the power subsidy, which is expected to touch Rs 6,500 crore-mark in the next financial year of 2017-18.
“We all are aware of the farmers’ situation, and considering that we cannot add more burden to their already burdened farming community…our farmers are not in a position to pay power bills,” he said.
At the same time, he also ruled out the possibility of reducing the power subsidy to the agriculture sector, atleast in the near future.
As per the arrangement, the State Government pay for no less than 14 lakhs tubewells to the state power utility — Punjab State Power Corporation limited (PSPCl) — in advance on quarterly basis.
Curtailing the subsidy was the major issue that led to the ouster of Manpreet Badal, not only from the State government, but also from the SAD in 2010. While the then Finance Minister Manpreet was in favour of Congress-led Central Government’s relief package which calls for cutting down on subsidy, the SAD-BJP government was against strongly it.
Notably, the previous Congress government, headed by Capt Amarinder from 2002 to 2007, had withdrawn the farm subsidy for some time and continued it later.
The new Congress government, which officially came into being on Thursday, has been initiating several austerity measures considering the state’s poor fiscal health. Besides, the state government is aiming at finding ways and means for revenue generation and setting a fiscal discipline for the recovery of state’s beleaguered economy.
“But, withdrawing subsidy is not the way out as the farm sector is already stressed…farmers are facing huge debt and not supporting them at this critical juncture would be wrong…instead we are working out on ways to generate more and more revenue and check excessive or useless expenditure wherever we can,” a senior Finance Department’s official told
The Pioneer.
The official added that the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder has given a clear message that wherever possible, the “government should support the various sectors or sections of the society to bring the state’s economy back on track, be it agriculture or small or medium scale industries”.