Armed with "comparative" facts and figures, Punjab Deputy Chief Minster Sukhbir Badal on Monday claimed that the State's economy is not in the doldrums, rather "it is in right hands".
Accused of delay in paying salaries to the State Government employees, and raising loans against public properties to meet day-to-day expenses, Sukhbir made an attempt to give the rosy state of affairs in the State through an hour-long power-point presentation highlighting every single fiscal indicator, and comparing State's current position not only with other states and the country, but also with the previous Congress Government.
In fact, Sukhbir blamed the Centre's discriminatory attitude towards the State, coupled with "unfavorable formula of devolution of taxes", "implementation of Pay Commission" combined with high salaries, as reasons for the State's "relatively slow growth" and high debt.
"Despite dwindling aids and grants from the Centre over the past few years, Punjab has been able to put its house in order. Though things would have been far better if Centre has supported us," said Sukhbir.
In an apparent attempt to bring to an end the controversy over State's economy, Sukhbir quoted facts and figures from the reports of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Central agencies as well as State monitoring agencies.
Attempts were also made to divert the criticism by comparing Punjab's fiscal health with those of other states as well as the Centre by emphasising that State's economy was in much better shape than that of the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre.
Apparently peeved over the allegations of the State going cash-strapped, Sukhbir said that such things were "deceiving the public with wrong information" and creating a negative image to shoo away the investors from the State.
Maintaining that no Government, country, and even business can survive without debt, Sukhbir said a "productive debt is imperative for the growth of the State and is a catalyst for development". He compared Punjab's outstanding debt of 32 per cent of State's Gross Domestic product (GSDP) with that of Japan, which is 225.9 per cent of GSDP.
Sukhbir, claiming that perception created is different from the reality, said: "In past seven years, Punjab has never defaulted on salaries and wages, pensions and others entitlements, principal repayment, interest payment, employees' arrears, and arrears of pensioners has also been cleared."
He said that the recommendations of fifth Pay Commission have been implemented and the last installment of revised scale amounting `1,035 crore will be implemented by December 2013, as per the agreement.
"We are on the right track and the rate of investment implementation is 79 per cent, according to a study by ASSOCHAM which reflects the confidence of investors in the Government," added Sukhbir.
Going through each fiscal indicator one-by-one, and comparing the same with Congress government, Sukhbir claimed that Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has "fared far better than Capt Amarinder Singh-led Congress regime of 2002-07".
Supporting his claims with the power-point slides on the State's expenditure, Centre's contribution to the State's finances, Punjab's tax revenue receipts as well as the State's non-tax revenue receipts among other things, Sukhbir said:
"Instead of blaming the Punjab Government for having ill fiscal health, the Congress-led UPA Government in India was under severe financial crisis and burdened with huge budgetary deficit which needs immediate attention".
Giving details of revenue generation from VAT, excise, own tax, to debt-GSDP ratio, revenue expenditure, among other things, Sukhbir deciphered each head, despite State Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa present all through.
Sukhbir lauded the efforts of the State government for "high revenue generation" which has saved the State from going bankrupt in the wake of the implementation of the recommendations of the fifth finance commission in 2009-10, from retrospective effect from January 2006.
"We managed because of better revenue generation….this is the reason why we have high expenditure. It is because of high salaries. Punjab employees are the highest paid, and government has no control over it. The percentage of loan taken is much less than the expenditure," said Sukhbir.
Clarifying State government's move to mortgaging properties, Sukhbir maintained that it is "optimum utilisation of government assets" and the funding for infrastructure is the combination of loan, resources of the concerned department and selling of properties".