Is AAP Leading Punjab Towards Financial Ruin?

Chandigarh, July 1 (NationPress) The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa, has made serious allegations against the Punjab government led by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), claiming it is driving the state towards financial disaster.

Bajwa expressed concern over the government's excessive borrowing, warning that Punjab is nearing a state of bankruptcy.

“In the three years of AAP's governance, Punjab has been plunged into debt. The government plans to incur an additional Rs 8,500 crore in the upcoming quarter (July-September) of this fiscal year — Rs 2,000 crore in July, Rs 3,000 crore in August, and Rs 3,500 crore in September. This irresponsible borrowing reflects a blatant disregard for the state's financial well-being,” said Bajwa in an official statement.

He also mentioned that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has appointed former IMF senior economist Arbind Modi as Chief Advisor and former World Bank economist Sebastian James as Advisor (Fiscal Affairs) to help rejuvenate Punjab’s faltering economy.

However, Bajwa raised doubts about the value of these appointments, questioning, “Is this the kind of expertise that world-renowned economists are providing to the AAP government? Even AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, who frequently boasts about his financial management skills, has not stepped up to assist Punjab in its time of crisis.”

Bajwa highlighted that when AAP took office in 2022, Punjab's total debt was Rs 281,773 crore. By the close of the 2025-26 fiscal year, this debt is forecasted to soar to Rs 400,000 crore, with some economists estimating it could escalate to Rs 450,000 crore by 2026-27, the last year of AAP's term.

“The citizens of Punjab will shoulder the burden of this massive debt through soaring taxes. The AAP government will likely disappear from the state long before the next Assembly elections,” Bajwa cautioned.

In response to Bajwa's claims, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema asserted that Punjab has achieved a remarkable 44.44 percent increase in net Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections for June 2025 and a significant 27.01 percent growth in the first quarter of this fiscal year, marking the highest GST revenue growth in a fiscal quarter and for June in the state's history.

He emphasized that the state has surpassed the national average in GST growth, firmly placing itself among the top-performing states in tax collection, even in the face of national and geopolitical challenges, including border tensions.