Himachal reports negative growth of 6.2 per cent in FY21 due to Covid, tourism sector contracts by 81 per cent

Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service
Shimla, March 5

Himachal Pradesh registered a negative growth of 6.2 per cent in the current financial year 2020-21 with the tourism sector contracting by over 81 per cent, severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, who also holds the finance portfolio, laid down the Economic Survey report for the year 2020-2021 in the Vidhan Sabha on Friday. The growth rate in the state has plummeted from 8.9 per cent in 2019-20 to minus 6.2 per cent this year. 

The Per Capita Income (PCI) at the current price is estimated to drop by 3.7 per cent to Rs 1,83,286 from the previous year’s PCI of Rs 1,90,407.

While almost all the revenue-generating sectors have witnessed a sharp decline, it is the tourism sector that was worst hit with a contraction of 81.33 per cent.

Besides this, the hotels and restaurants sector showed a contraction of 9.2 per cent during 2020-21. Transport, mining and quarrying, forestry and construction sectors were also badly hit.

The transport sector registered a negative growth of 28 per cent, which includes road, rail, water and air transport. This is in sharp contrast to the 5.6 per cent growth in the previous financial year. The trends in the industrial sector during the pandemic too indicate a grim scenario with a contraction of 14.2 per cent in manufacturing. The mining and quarrying sector registered a negative growth of 18.4 per cent as against a growth of 4.3 per cent in 2019-20.

The setback on account of covid was relatively less in the Agriculture and Allied sectors. This sector registered a contraction of 3.1 per cent which due to a decrease of 43 per cent in horticulture production. The agriculture sector, which sustains 60 per cent of the population, in gross value added at the current price declined to 13.62 per cent in 2020-21.