PUNJAB

In addition to the regular IGST settlement, Punjab has received an ad-hoc settlement to the tune of Rs 448.35 crore in the month of August 2021 for the first quarter of the financial year 2021-22. As a result, the GST revenue up to the month of August 2021 has witnessed a high Growth of nearly 80 percent as compared to the corresponding period last year.

The tax collection from VAT and CST during the month of August 2021 is Rs 648.44 crore and Rs 26.97 crore respectively. As compared to the same period last year, VAT and CST revenue collection have displayed an impressive growth of 24 and 40 percent this year thereby pointing to the upward curve of the economic recovery.

The Punjab State Development Tax collection during August 2021 remained at Rs 11.38 crore with a growth of 9.63 percent over the corresponding period last year.

Subsidy ranging from 50 to 80 percent is being offered to the farmers under the scheme with 80 percent subsidy to and farmers groups while 50 percent is for individuals. The machinery portal is being reopened from August 2-4, 2021, only for Panchayats, Cooperative societies, and FPOs to give them one more opportunity to avail the benefit of these subsidized agri-equipments.

The State Government has focused on delivering state-of-the-art machines to farmers including Super SMS, Happy Seeder, Paddy Straw Chopper, Shredder or Mulcher, Hydraulic Reversible Mould Board Plough and Zero Till Drill.

The state of Punjab has gained a substantial increase of 79 percent, and 27.87 percent in the Excise and Good and Services Tax (GST) revenue, respectively, during June 2023 as compared to June 2022.

Sharing this, the state Finance, Planning, Excise and Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Monday said that the current State Government has broken its own records by registering a 29.66 percent increase in revenue collection from Excise, GST, VAT, CST and PSDT during the month of June this year, and an aggregate increase of 25 percent during the first quarter of the fiscal year 2023-24 as compared to the same period of FY 2022-23.

The total revenue from Excise during June 2023 was 663.97 crores as against the Excise collection of Rs 370.93 crores during June last year, registering a significant increase of Rs 293.04 crores. The revenue from GST has also reflected an increase of Rs 338. 42 crores with GST collection of 1552.66 crores in June 2023 as against a collection of Rs 1214.24 crores in June 2022, he said.

Expressing happiness over Punjabs continuous stability on the Growth trajectory, Cheema said that the state has not only shown growth during the month of June this year but also registered an increase of Rs 1848.66 crores in revenue from Excise, GST, VAT, CST and PSDT during the first quarter of 2023-24.

TheReserve Bank of Indias fiscal risk analysis report predicts thatPunjabs debt-to-GSDP (gross state domestic product) ratio will keep deteriorating and exceed 45% in financial year 2026-27, while the states outstanding debt will cross Rs 3.05 lakh crore by the end of the current FY. It joins Bihar,Kerala,Rajasthan, and West Bengal in the club of highly stressed states with unsustainable .

The RBI found Punjab and Haryana among the 10 states with the highest debt burden, the other being Rajasthan, Kerala, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand,Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. Contingent liabilities have surpassed 5% of the GSDP in Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. These 10 worst states account for around half the expenditure by all state governments. Their other vulnerability indicators are GFD-to-GSDP (gross Fiscal Deficit to gross state domestic product) ratios equal to or more than 3% in fiscal 2021-22, besides deficits in their revenue accounts (except Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand).

The interest payment to Revenue Receipts ratio, a measure of debt servicing burden on the states revenues, was more than 10% in eight of these states, barring Bihar and Jharkhand. The own tax revenue of Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Kerala has been declining, while their non-tax revenue has remained volatile, dropping significantly in recent years.

In a bid to address the problem of growing industrial Air Pollution, the Punjab government announced PARTNERSHIP with the Abdul Latif Jameel POVERTY Action Lab (J-PAL) South Asia and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC India) to launch the use of an emissions trading scheme (ETS).

The state’s and Commerce and the Science, Technology and Environment Departments would work with them to design and establish pollution markets in Punjab.

The partnership includes providing technical assistance and capacity building to public officials to effectively use data and research evidence from established and functioning emissions trading market in Surat in Gujarat.

As a first step in this partnership, the State Government and the Punjab Pollution Control Board would also launch an ETS to regulate emissions from 200 dyeing industries in Ludhiana besides reducing particulate and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the state.

Notably, this initiative is part of an ongoing partnership between the state government and J-PAL South Asia, wherein since 2017 J-PAL South Asia has worked with state departments to facilitate rigorous, policy-relevant researchand the scale-up of successful programmes.

To reduce burden on public exchequer, thePunjabgovernment has decided to issue fee receipts for government Services on mobile applications. The initiative will not only save paper worth Rs 1.3 crore every year, but will also unburden the state exchequer by at least Rs 80 lakh per annum.

The service has been launched recently, said ministerAman Arora. The elimination of the paper receipt system will significantly reduce carbon footprint atSewa Kendrasand contribute to a sustainable future.

The decision, aimed at incentivizing the villages to give up vaccine hesitancy, was announced by the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh while interacting virtually with village Panchayats represented by more than 2,000 heads or members across over 4,000 live locations in the rural parts of the state through LED screens.

The Chief Minister, appealing to the Sarpanches and Panches across the State to lead their villages in the fight against COVID-19, also urged them to motivate the people to undergo testing even in case of mild symptoms, and to get themselves vaccinated.

Capt Amarinder informed them that his Government had already sanctioned permission for Sarpanches to utilize up to Rs 5,000 per day from Panchayat funds for emergency COVID treatment, up to a maximum of Rs 50,000.

Due to the effects ofclimate change,Punjab, which produces 10% of the country’s food grains, may witness a decline in yield of between 13% and 1% in its major Kharif and by 2050.

This has been pointed out in the synthesis report of theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate-change”>Climate Change(IPCC). Making an assessment of the current state of scientific knowledge related to climate change, the report brought together the findings from various scientific studies to provide a clear picture of the risks and impacts of climate change, as well as the Options for mitigating and adapting to those risks.

Punjabs new and sources minister Aman Arora on Saturday said the state would soon come up with Green Hydrogen policy as part of energy transition plan, aiming to reduce fossil fuel usage by utilising agricultural residue.

He said the state produced 20 million tonnes of paddy straw every year and 12 million still remained unutilized. With this policy, paddy straw will become an asset, said Arora.The minister said the work on another ambitious project of solarisation of all government buildings has also been initiated.

After an assurance by the to clear Rs 1,800 crore per annum for next five years, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (Pspcl) has been granted a loan of Rs 9,641 crore for the installation of smart meters.

The PSPCL has been allowed to strengthen Infrastructure for the loss reduction in a time bound manner under revamped distribution sector scheme (RDSS) of by the Power Finance Corporation (PFC).

The project cost of smart metering works is Rs 5,768 crore with a grant of Rs 875 crore from Central Government. An additional incentive of Rs 85 crore will be given on completion of the project in defined time period. The project cost for strengthening the infrastructure for loss reduction is Rs 3,837 crore with a grant of Rs 3,199 crores.

This loan, however, comes with a rider that the state department must clear arrears of subsidy amounting to Rs 9,020 crore, along with pending electricity dues from government departments of Rs 2,548 crore, to the PSPCL.