Punjab FM to undertake state tour before budget

Punjab's budget this year would be prepared on the basis of ground realities rather than statistical abstracts, said Manpreet Singh Badal, the state's new finance minister.

In an exclusive interview to Business Standard, Badal said he would travel across the state to study the ground realities before drafting the Budget.

During his two-month tour, he will interact with industry representatives, beopar mandals and various other associations to learns their problems and demands.

"It is an irony that in the last 10 years, Punjab has been consistently sliding on financial parameters. Revenue and fiscal deficit are also on a downward trend. According to the Planning Commission's report, the state has been ranked 5th in per capita income. Expectations are that it will slip to 7th place in the next two years and if adequate steps are not taken, it may drop to number 9. We have to gear up to put the economy back on the fast track," said Badal.

On the reasons for this, he said: "Our economy is very sluggish. The state is not growing mainly because of high salary bill, a huge debt of Rs 50,000 crore, highly subsidised social service, and slow growth in revenue. Loss-making public sector undertakings are another factor. Also, Punjab's share in central taxes is going down."

"We need a tailor-made growth model to put the state on the fast track. Being a finance minister, my thrust areas will be education, health and infrastructure, including power. Apart from these, we will push agriculture in the state, which is growing at the rate of 2 per cent, currently," he added.

To boost agriculture, the Punjab government constituted a six-member high-power committee for the implementation of agriculture programme under the chairmanship of the finance minister. The committee will recommend methods to modernise farm practices and agro processing.

On the industrial sector, he said, "...we need industry and in order to promote industry, we need to end red-tapism and we will undertake bureaucratic and economic reforms in consultation with industry representatives. We will formulate a law in consultation with industry and trade representative to boost industry."

He also said the government was eyeing the Punjabi diaspora to boost development.

"We also would like to develop special economic zones in the state. But keeping in mind the farmers' interest, we will ask the developers to acquire the land by themselves. We would also like to offer land belonging to government to hoteliers on a lease hold basis," he said.

When asked about the commitment of the party to provide atta at Rs 4 a kg he said, "You can say it is foolhardy...but you have to admit that there is a lot of poverty in the state. We have identified 13 lakh families that will be covered under this scheme."