Himachal Pradesh govt raised Rs 13,055 crore debt in 2022-23: CAG

The Himachal Pradesh government raised loans amounting Rs 13,055 crore during 2022-23, increasing the debt burden from Rs 73,534 in 2021-22 to Rs 86,589 crore in 2022-23, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said in its report on Finance Accounts for 2022-23.

The loan also included the loans raised in the last quarter of 2022-23.

The report tabled in the Vidhan Sabha by Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that out of the total amount of Rs 50,539 crore spent during the year, more than 50 per cent was paid towards salaries and pension and expenditure on these heads increased after implementation of Sixth Pay Commission, which was followed by Himachal Pradesh.

However, the revenue deficit, which was Rs 7,962 crore in 2021-22, was marginally lower at Rs 6,335 crore in 2022-23.

The expenditure on salaries, which was Rs 11,641 crore in 2021-22, increased to Rs 15,669 crore in the last financial year after the revision of pay scales.

Similarly, the cost of payment of pension also increased from Rs 6,088 crore to Rs 9,283 crore in 2022-23.

During the years 2021-22 and 2022-23, the government did not submit the utilisation certificates despite incurring an expenditure of Rs 4,242 crore and expenditure on subsidies has also increased from Rs 1,240 crore to Rs 1,973 crore, the report pointed out.

The Himachal Vidhan Sabha adjourned sine dine on Saturday after a five-day session, which had five sitting including a private member's day. The proceedings continued for 33 hours and productivity was 132 per cent, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania said.

He said that 348 starred and 123 unstarred questions were asked during the session and of these 260 starred and 119 unstarred questions were answered.