Himachal Pradesh is reeling under ever increasing debt burden. The state government’s tall claims of strengthening the state’s economy seems to fizzle out.

The state government is relying on centrally sponsored schemes for development works.

The increasing debt burden has also exposed the claims made by the government in the FRBM Act in which the government has talked about reducing non-productive expenses as well as raising resources.

This has been revealed in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for the financial year 2022-23 that was presented in the Himachal Assembly on the last day of the winter session on Saturday.

According to the report, the government took a loan of Rs 13 thousand 55 crore in the last financial year. This amount of debt also includes the amount of loan taken by the current government in the last quarter of the financial year.

While the state had a debt of Rs 73,534 crore in the year 2021-22, it has increased to Rs 86, 589 crore in 2022-23.

The report maintains that the revenue deficit of the state in the last financial year was Rs 6,335 crore. This is however slightly less than Rs 7,962 crore in 2021-22.

But despite spending an amount of about Rs 4,242 crore in 2021-22 and 2022-23, the government did not collect its utility certificates from various agencies.

The CAG has raised questions on non-obtaining of utility certificate and has asked the government to take necessary steps in this regard.

Furthermore, the report states that the government spent an amount of Rs 50,539 crore in the last financial year. Of this, more than 50 percent was spent on payment of salaries and pensions of employees.

After implementing the recommendations of the Sixth Punjab Pay Commission, the extent to which the burden on the treasury for payment of pensions and salaries has increased can be gauged from the government’s expenses.

Whereas in the year 2021-22, Rs 11,641 crore was being spent annually on salaries, after implementing the recommendations of the Pay Commission, the expenditure on salaries reached Rs 15,669 crore every year with an increase of Rs 4000 crore.

Similarly, the amount of expenditure on payment of pension also increased from Rs 6,880 crore in 2021-22 to more than Rs 9,283 crore in 2022-23.

Due to continuous borrowing, the government had to also spend Rs 4,828 crore on interest in 2022-23 as compared to Rs 4,472 crore in 2021-22.

Similarly, the amount being spent by the government on subsidies to fulfill populist announcements also increased from Rs 1240 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 1973 crore in 2022-23.