Punjab suffered 88 percent revenue loss in April due to COVID-19, CM tells Congress President Sonia Gandhi

Pegging the April revenue shortfall for the state at 88 percent, Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh said Punjab was facing a challenging financial situation which further has been compounded by absence of financial assistance from the Union Government.

Capt. Amarinder Singh disclosed that against the estimated revenues of Rs 3360 crore for April, only Rs 396 crore had been received during the month. He said the state’s power consumption had declined by 30 percent with a daily loss of Rs. 30 crore in collection of electricity tariff to the Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd. (PSPCL). In addition, the state’s GST arrears of Rs 4365.37 crore are yet to be paid by the Central Government, he added.

Amarinder Singh shared his state’s COVID-19 containment strategy and the roadmap for economic revival while participating in a video conference of chief ministers of Congress-ruled states with party president Sonia Gandhi along with former Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday.

The CM also shared details of issues raised by his government with the union government. These include pending GST arrears, demand for revenue grant for the next three months, review of the current year report by the 15th Finance Commission, among others.

His government was also pursuing relief for poor and daily wage agricultural and industrial labour including migrant workers who are badly affected due to loss of jobs/employment, he said, adding that the state had also sought urgent relief for MSMEs and the power sector.

During the meeting, Sonia Gandhi asked the Punjab Chief Minister to convey her congratulations to the farmers of Punjab for a smooth procurement season, with the latter disclosing that more than 100 Lakh MT had arrived in the mandis already, and the entire procurement process was expected to be completed by mid-May.

The initial report of the Group of Experts headed by Montek Singh Ahluwalia on the economic and industrial revival of the state was likely to be received in three months, and it would take another month after that to refine and finalise the same, said Capt Amarinder Singh.

He, however, said that despite the financial crunch, his government was committed to preparing the society and the common man to manage and contain the coronavirus, and was also taking every possible step to upgrade and readjust the state’s healthcare system to meet the challenges of COVID-19.

The CM was of the opinion that the decision on classification of zones as red, orange or green should be left to the states, which, in turn, could authorise the Deputy Commissioners (DCs) to demarcate as per the ground realities. He cited the example of Patiala being classified as a red zone, even though Nabha – a major milk-producing area – is located in the district. Punjab state currently has four containment zones and four red zone districts while 15 districts are in orange zone and the remaining three in green one.

On the latest status of COVID-19, he said the state has reported a total of 1451 positive cases with 25 deaths (mortality rate of 1.72 percent). The CM said there had been a spike in cases in Punjab after Punjabis residing outside Punjab started coming back from Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Of the 4200-odd persons who had returned from Nanded, 969 had tested positive, though only 23 of them were symptomatic. Some results were awaited, he said, adding that the spike was expected to end, with the situation stabilising in the next 3-4 days, once testing of all such people is completed. All returnees are now being checked and quarantined, he added.

The CM warned of high risk of spread of infection in the state from those returning to the state especially the workers coming back from the Gulf in crowded ships. Four ships of migrants, mostly labourers, were expected to arrive in the next few days, while the first plane with NRIs was expected to reach Punjab on Thursday, he disclosed.

Giving details, the CM said around 20,000 international travellers are expected to return to Punjab in the next 3-4 weeks, in addition to around 12,000 who had registered in other states for coming back. As for the migrant workers wanting to go back from Punjab to their native states, he disclosed that 10 lakh had registered so far, of which 85 per cent belonged to Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar.

The state government has sanctioned Rs 35 crore to provide for train travel cost of these workers, he said, adding that three trains left on May 5 for UP and Jharkhand and 6 more were scheduled for May 6.