Panjab’s Revenue Receipts Fall 10% in 2023-24, Loan Burden Up to $41B

The Panjab govt. has not been able to meet its target for revenue receipts for the 2023-24 fiscal year, falling short in collections by almost 10%. As a result, the revenue deficit is up from the set target by $218M. The largest shortfall has been registered in the grants-in-aid and contributions (states receive from the Indian govt.), which fell short by 29.75% of the target. However, the state’s share from national taxes increased by $201M, which is over and above the target of $2.2B. The total borrowings by the Panjab govt. in 2023-24 were $3.7B against a target of raising $4.1B.  As of 31 Mar 2024, the total debt burden on the state was $41B. The AAP government also paid $2.4B as interest on its borrowings. Even non-tax revenue collected by the state has shown a shortfall in collections by $95M. The tax collections during the fiscal touched $8B down from the target of $8.4B. The state govt. has also spent 6.5% less than budgeted during the last fiscal year. The govt. cleared the power subsidy of $2,247M, besides clearing all its salary and pension liabilities. However, most of the revenue earned by the state continued to go into meeting the committed liabilities. Only $577M was spent on creating infrastructure (capital assets), which is just 46.96% of what the govt. initially proposed to spend as capital expenditure. After two years in power, AAP can no longer blame previous govts. for the fall in revenue receipts (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 11, Story 2).