The opposition SAD on Monday held the fiscal policies of the Congress government in Punjab responsible for the "dismal" financial situation of the state and claimed that it was "heavily relying" on GST compensation in the wake of lack of growth in the state's tax revenue.
It also accused the ruling party of "betraying" every section of the society by not honouring its poll promises even after over one-and-half-years of it coming to
passed in coming to power.
"The government has been raising hue and cry over the poor fiscal situation of the state ever since it came to power and has been using financial crisis as an excuse for doing nothing for the state. All the policies including fiscal policies of the state government were insensitive and without any direction," SAD leader and former state finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa told reporters here.
"If you see the state's own tax revenue, the growth in it is negative. There is 100 per cent reliance on GST compensation and devolution of funds by the Centre," he said.
Claiming that the state government never made any "honest" effort to generate resources, Dhindsa said, "There is nil growth in excise revenue and growth in stamp duty collection was negative."
Punjab is the only state which is relying maximum on the the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation. Thirty-six per cent of the total GST collection is GST compensation. Had it not been there, the government would have gone bankrupt," the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader claimed.
He also hit out at the government for not releasing the pending Dearness Allowance (DA) of state employees.
He said the SAD demands that the Congress government immediately releases DA installments as well as arrears of Rs 4,000 crore, besides regularising services of all contractual employees according to a legislation passed by the previous SAD-BJP government.
He also demanded speedy submission of the Sixth Punjab Pay Commission report.
Dhindsa said the government's decision to reduce the salaries of teachers while offering them regularisation of services after a period of three years was condemnable.
Asking the Congress government not to "oppress and repress" teachers in this manner, he said the previous SAD-BJP government had increased their salaries from Rs 10,000 per month to Rs 42,000 per month in 10 years.
"Now the same employees are being offered a salary of Rs 15,000 per month. This is intolerable. We demand the government regularize their services without any pre-condition as envisaged in the 2016 Act passed by the SAD-BJP government," the Akali leader said.
Dhindsa said the "anti-employee" attitude of the Congress government could also be seen from the fact that it had not issued any direction to the Sixth Punjab Pay Commission to submit its report so that the same could be implemented speedily.
Asking the government to issue directions to the panel to submit its report within three months, he said in the meantime the government should give interim relief to employees by revising their basic pay.
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