Himachal Pradesh is facing a debt burden of Rs 49,096 crore, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur informed the state Assembly on Saturday. Replying to questions by Jagat Singh Negi, Rajinder Rana and Ramesh Chand Dhawala, the CM stated that the state’s debt burden was Rs 46, 385 crore in 2017. The present government took a net loan of Rs 2,711 crore till July 31, this year, he said. So, the debt burden has now increased to Rs 49,096 crore. The burden on the state was 19,977 and Rs 27,598 crores in 2007 and 2012 respectively, he added. Thakur said the previous Congress government had taken a net loan of Rs 18,787 crore from 2013 to 2017 during its five years tenure. Of the total Rs 2,711 crore net loan taken by the current BJP government till July 31, this year, net loan of Rs 1,754 crore and Rs 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 a total loan of Rs 11,329 crore had been taken. Of which, Rs 6,517 crore was used for repaying the loan. So, the net loan during the last three financial years is Rs 4,812 crore, he added.
