‘Himachal faces over Rs 10K cr annual loss’

Shimla: After Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu mounted a major attack against the Centre, it was Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri who raised strong objections and questioned the Central government’s decision to stop the Revenue Deficit Grant for the state.

In a strongly worded statement, Agnihotri said the Centre’s decision will inflict a direct annual financial blow of more than Rs 10,000 crore on Himachal Pradesh. This has put the resource-strapped state into deep crisis.

The decision seems to be more political than logical, he said.

Describing the move as a “long-term crisis” rather than a temporary setback, the Deputy CM asserted that the weakening of the state’s financial structure is completely unacceptable.

He said that it is a “double blow” to the state economy as Himachal is already reeling under a dual economic impact in the form of GST earlier and now RDG. “The cessation of GST compensation was the first major shock during the Central BJP regime, which had already proven detrimental to mountain states with limited revenue resources. Secondly, with the abolition of the ‘Revenue Deficit Grant’, which was an institutional safeguard for states like ours, the Union government has given a second major severe blow to the state’s fiscal health.”