Govt to raise Rs 1,000 cr loan for development

Tribune News Service

Shimla, November 20

The cash-strapped Himachal Government will raise a loan of Rs 1,000 crore to maintain the pace of development and meet its other needs.

The Finance Department issued a notification in this regard on Thursday.

The loan will be raised in two installments of Rs 500 crore each, with one being repayable in eight and a half years and the other a year later in nine and a half years.

There is a loan limit of Rs 5,000 crore for the current year till December 31. The government has already raised Rs 3,000 crore as loan till now.

Sources said that the permission of the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Government had already been obtained for raising Rs 1,000 crore as loan.

The money would be deposited in the Himachal Government treasury on November 25. Undertaking various development works has been cited as the reason for raising the loan.

The state government debt has already mounted to Rs 58,000 crore with little sources of revenue generation.

The two key sectors of tourism and power have not brought about much revenue.

There has been a loss of revenue to the tune of crores of rupees, as the hotel industry is still limping back to normalcy.

A Global Investors’ Meet was held in Dharamsala in November 2019 and 703 MoUs worth Rs 96,000 crore were signed there. However, with the Covid outbreak, none of the projects had taken shape.

Even though a groundbreaking ceremony was held in December 2019 in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, there had been little progress since then with the economy taking a severe beating due to the pandemic.

Plans were afoot to hold another groundbreaking ceremony after the unlock-III period but the possibility of this, too, seems bleak in the near future with a sudden spike in Covid cases and fatalities.