Himachal facing debt burden of over ₹49,000 crore, CM tells Assembly

Himachal Pradesh is facing a debt burden of ₹49,096 crore, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur informed the state Assembly on Saturday (August 31).

Replying to questions by Jagat Singh Negi, Rajinder Rana and Ramesh Chand Dhawala, the CM stated that the states debt burden was ₹46,385 crore in 2017.

The present government took a net loan of ₹2,711 crore till July 31, this year, he said. So, the debt burden has now increased to ₹49,096 crore. The burden on the state was ₹19,977 crore in 2007 and ₹27,598 crore in 2012, he added.

Thakur said that the previous Congress government had taken a net loan of ₹18,787 crore from 2013 to 2017 during its five years tenure.

Of the total ₹2,711 crore net loan taken by the current BJP government till July 31, this year, net loan of ₹1,754 crore and ₹957 crore was taken in 2018-19 and till now in 2019-20 respectively.

Providing data of the last three financial years till July 31 this year, the CM said that a total loan of ₹11,329 crore had been taken. Of which, ₹6,517 crore was used for repaying the loan. So, the net loan during the last three financial years is ₹4,812 crore, he added.