Central government’s blow to Himachal: Ceiling on taking loan in foreign funded agency project; Budget will not get more than 3 crores annually

Chief Minister Sukhwinder Sukhu

After the change of power in Himachal Pradesh, the Modi government at the center is giving shocks to the state one after the other. The Center had earlier reduced Himachal’s loan limit from 5% to 3%. Then stopped the matching grant of NPS. Now, in the projects of foreign funded agencies, a ceiling has been put on taking loans every year.

This will affect the funding of various projects of Agriculture, Horticulture, Tourism, Forest Department, Jal Shakti Department, Public Works Department in the coming days, because World Bank, ADB (Asian Development Bank), NDB (New Development Bank), Jika (Japan Half a dozen projects are going on in Himachal with the help of various agencies including International Cooperation Agency).

For horticulture sector alone, Horticulture Development Project worth Rs 1134 crore, Shiva Project worth more than 1700 crore and Jaika Project worth more than 1500 crore for agriculture are going on. Similarly, projects funded by various agencies are going on in other departments as well.

4000 crore ceiling on the old project
The Center has put a ceiling on not giving more than 4000 crore budget annually on these already running projects and not more than 3000 crore budget on new projects. Due to this, difficulties are bound to increase on the economic front of the Sukhu government.