Kairon: Diverted Rs 900 crore, but returned with interest

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 16

The state government today initiated a damage-control exercise after being blamed by the Centre for missing foodgrain, diversion of procurement money for populist schemes, unsettled accounts and payment crisis for wheat procurement.

The government claimed that it was the Centre that owed Rs26,187 crore to Punjab, while the state owed nothing as far as the procurement accounts were concerned.

Admitting for the first time that the state had diverted Rs900 crore of procurement money for the Atta-Dal scheme, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Adesh Partap Kairon today said it was on old issue and the money thus diverted was returned with interest.

The minister was talking to the media regarding the controversy over the delay in the release of cash credit limit by the Centre and the consortium of 68 banks for wheat procurement due to which payment to farmers is pending since April 1.

Kairon claimed the state’s accounts were clear. The government has also shot off a letter to the State Bank of India clarifying that the accounts of last procurement of paddy were clear.

SK Sandhu, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, said the banks gave a loan of Rs14,674.57 crore for paddy. “The entire amount except Rs374.91 crore was repaid. The account of Rs374.91 crore was also cleared with grain worth Rs230 crore and bills for the remaining Rs145 crore were raised and submitted,” he claimed.

Kairon said the matter was likely to be resolved by next week and the government would soon start clearing the payments. “Since 2003-04, the state has a dispute with the Centre over the procurement accounts. As per our calculations, the Centre owes us Rs26,087 crore, of which Rs8,113 crore is the principal amount and the remaining interest,” he said.

The Centre, on the other hand, insisted that the state owed Rs12,000 crore to it due to mismatch in the previous year’s accounts. It was also alleged that stocks worth Rs12,000 crore were missing from the state godowns.

Kairon said: “In August last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set up a draft committee to settle it. The committee had agreed to pay the state Rs4,300 crore out of Rs26,087 crore as claimed by us. Since we demanded interest on the amount as well, the payment is yet to be made. The draft committee is discussing the matter and the process is still on.”

He said the dispute was purely an accounts issue and there was no politics behind it. “As per the system, we get cash credit and pay it back and submit bills for the remaining. There are many incidental expenses such as difference in rates of transportation and handling of the stock due to which the estimated expenses and the actual expenses do not tally,” he added.