SAD accuses Manpreet Singh Badal of fudging budget figures and cheating Punjabis
Punjab Budget 2021: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) legislative wing on Wednesday moved a privilege motion against finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, asserting privilege proceedings should be initiated against the latter for fudging budget figures and cheating Punjabis by making provisions under various heads in successive budgets but not releasing the funds for the same.
The privilege motion against Manpreet Singh Badal, which was submitted to the Speaker early Wednesday morning, also accused the finance minister of lying on the floor of the House and demanded due action be taken against him.
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The Shiromani Akali Dal legislators led by the legislative wing leader Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and Bikram Singh Majithia said the FM had fudged figures to the tune of Rs 69,676 crore in the budget by inflating the State GSDP.
They said the GSDP for 2019-20 was Rs 5.74 lakh crore and it fell by 6.4 percent in 2020-21 due to Covid pandemic by the State’s own estimates on page nine of Budget at a Glance document.
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“This should have made the GSDP 5.37 lakh crore in 2020-21 but the FM had fudged figures to show a GSDP of Rs 6.07 lakh crore for 2020-21”.
The privilege motion also pointed out that Manpreet Badal had misled the House vis a vis Rs 8,359 crore loan taken by the State by not taking in into account in the 2020-21 estimates.
They said if this was taken into account the State debt for 2020-21 would become Rs 2.61 lakh crore and not Rs 2.52 lakh crore as stated in the budget and the same would rise to Rs 2.73 lakh crore in 2021-22. “All this will also result in an increase in the debt to GSDP ratio to 48 percent in 2021-22 and not 45 percent as projected by the government,” he added.
-PTC News
