The economic system of the states has completely deteriorated due to the Corona crisis and lockdown. Taxes on the sale of alcohol, tobacco products and petroleum products contribute to the state governments' earnings, while their buying and selling is completely closed due to lockdown. Apart from this, business and industrial units are also completely closed, due to which state treasuries are becoming empty. State governments are constantly pleading for financial help and package from the central government, but so far no concrete strategy has been revealed nationwide. In such a situation, the state governments have started their exercise to recover from the economic crisis after Corona.
After coming out of lockdown, the Captain Government of Punjab has stepped up efforts on its part to bring the state's economic condition back on track. To bring Punjab out of the economic crisis after Corona, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has formed a team of 20 economic experts led by former Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who will work under the guidance of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh tweeted that the state's economy is going through a very difficult phase due to the corona virus and the lockdown implemented to control it. When the effect of Corona ends, it will be a big challenge to deal with the situation in front of the government. This challenge is not only in Punjab but in the whole country and the whole world. The Captain said that with the Coronavirus being dealt with, everybody and everywhere it is being thought that how handle the economic situation after Corona.
Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has written a letter to the Prime Minister citing loss of revenue and increase in expenditure on health and relief operations due to the shutdown of business and industrial activities. On the other hand, keeping in mind the situation after the lockdown, Captain Amarinder Singh has started preparations at the state level as well.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has formed a group of experts on 25 April. It will be headed by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Deputy Chairman and Economist of the Planning Commission. The 20-member team will have experts from the economy and industry. These experts will not only suggest short term and medium term action plans to the state government, they will also give policy suggestions.
Amarinder Singh tweeted that a team of experts has been formed under the leadership of Montek Singh Ahluwalia to address the economic challenges, which was written to Dr. Manmohan Singh ji to guide me and I am thankful to him that is accepted. We are working hard to keep Punjab on the path of economic development and after Corona we will focus on it again.
It is believed that under the guidance of Manmohan Singh, this group will give initial suggestions by 31 July and thereafter will report on it again by 30 September and 31 December. It is being said that with the help of this report at an interval of three months, the situation can be understood better and decisions can be taken to take economic steps accordingly.
It should be noted that like Punjab, Ashok Gehlot Government of Rajasthan has also formed two task forces. In this, one task force has been formed to monitor the administrative situation and the other to monitor the economic situation. Not only has this, in view of the shortage of laborers in lockdown, Ashok Gehlot made a rule for laborers to work for 12 hours instead of 8 hours. PM Modi also praised this decision of Gehlot in a meeting with the Chief Ministers on Monday.
States have run out of funds due to the Corona crisis and the states owe about Rs 30,000 crore as GST refund. After the demand of the states, the central government has given almost half the amount but nothing is clear about how long the remaining money will be given. In the meeting with the PM, the CMs of the non-BJP ruled state have consistently demanded the outstanding GST fund, while some Chief Ministers have also written a letter to the Center in this regard.
