Punjab assembly approves vote on account for next 3 months

Chandigarh, Mar 29 (UNI) The Punjab Legislative Assembly today passed a vote-on-account for Rs 6945.53 crore for the first three months of the 2007-08 fiscal year.

The House, adopted the Appropriation Bill to the vote on account before being adjourned since die, and assured to move the budget during the June session of the assembly.

The House also voted the supplementary estimates of Rs 2761.24 crore as the Appropriation Bill for the current financial year.

The vote on account and the supplementary estimates were passed by voice vote, as the entire Congress opposition had staged a walkout from the House in protest against the alleged harassment of former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh in connection with the Ludhiana City Centre scam and also against the reported statement by the state counsel before the Supreme Court on the sharing of the river water.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in his speech assured the House that his government stood by the earlier stand that Punjab rivers were governed by the riparian laws. ''I stand by the commitment that section five of the the Termination of Water Agreement Act, should be annuled and for this legal opinion will be taken'', he added.

He declared that the case against his predecessor and former Local Bodies Minister Choudhary Jagjit Singh was on the basis of the inquiry conducted by the state Vigilance Bureau. There is no question of harassing anybody and the law of the land would be allowed to take its own course, he told the House.

Presenting the vote on account after the walkout by the Opposition, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal painted a grim fiscal situation in the state. He said the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government had inherited deficit finances.

He said the process of finalisation of resources for the annual plan 2007-08 with the Planning Commission was yet to be completed.

Similarly, the market borrowing and negotiated loans for the annual plan 2007-08 were yet to be decided by the Planning Commission, possibly during the months of April or May next.

The Finance minister said for the past few years with revenue deficit at Rs 1240.25 crore, the fiscal deficit was around Rs 2653.92 crore. The outstanding debt was hovering around 50 per cent of the gross state domestic product at the end of the financial year 2005-06, he added.

This fiscal position, he said was despite the fact that liberal grants were received from the central government under the recommendations of the 12th Finance Commission. The year that was drawing to close on March 31 was likely to end with a higher revenue and fiscal deficits than Rs 1389.63 crore and Rs 3576.30 crore respectively.

The finance minister regretted that Punjab had not been able to attract large and medium industry in the past couple of years. This was mainly due to major conncessions give by the centre to the industries being set up in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand.

''Rather the industry had shifted from Punjab to these states due to these concessions'', he lamented while seeking the copperation of all to improve the fiscal health of the state.

UNI