Khattar govt accuses previous Cong regime for fiscal crisis

BJP-led Haryana government today accused the previous Congress regime of leaving the state in "fiscal stress" by announcing "fund exhausting" decisions which put a huge financial burden on the state's exchequer.
Manohar Lal Khattar-led government also expressed concern over high revenue deficit and ballooning debt though it exuded confidence that it would bring the state out of "precarious" financial situation by focusing on transparency and accountability.
"The present fiscal health of the state is in crisis, there is no doubt about it. Revenue deficit is very high, debt servicing has increased. The state's plan expenditure is less while non-plan expenditure is growing," Haryana Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu said here today.

The new Finance Minister held previous Congress government responsible for putting "heavy" financial burden on the state.
"Announcements made by them (Hooda government) in this election year put heavy financial burden on the state's exchequer," he said.
On being asked, he said he would present full detail pertaining financial burden after the State's assembly session next week.

On revenue collection, he said that state could achieve 15 per cent growth in tax mobilization, though it would not be sufficient to meet the rising revenue expenditure.
Haryana had projected revenue deficit of Rs 5,013 crore for 2014-15, thrice of what it was in 2011-12.

As per Fiscal Responsibility and Budgetary Management (FRBM) Act 2005, the existing revenue deficit should have been zero.
Notably, Haryana remained a revenue surplus state for a period starting from 2005-06 till 2007-08.
Significantly, Haryana's debt burden grew by over 200 per cent to Rs 81,806 crore (Budget Estimates for (2014-15) since 2005-06.