| The Punjab Assembly passed the vote-on-account for Rs 6,783 crore for the first three months of the next financial year by a voice vote amidst heated arguments between the Treasury and the Opposition benches.
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| The vote-on-account for the expenditure for the months of April, May and June was passed with the main Opposition, the Shiromani Akali Dal, strongly denouncing the government for "failing to present the Budget."
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| Earlier, presenting the vote-on-account, which proposed no new taxes, Punjab Finance Minister Lal Singh said the state was reeling under heavy debt, which stood at Rs 36,853 crore at the end of 2002-03. The state incurred a huge expenditure on interest payments amounting to Rs 3,434 crore in 2002-03.
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| To lighten this burden, the Amarinder Singh government had adopted the debt-swap scheme, introduced by the Centre, to swap high-cost debts bearing interest rate of 13.5 per cent and above with low cost debts, he said.
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| However, this has affected the availability of funds to the state. As a result the state government had received about Rs 1,100 crore less from small saving loans in the current financial year, he added.
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| Singh claimed that the state finances were in "bad shape" when the present government took over two years ago.
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| "Revenue receipts were almost stagnant, expenditure was moving up rapidly and revenue deficit was at an all time high of Rs 3,781 crore," he added. |
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