“Himachal Pradesh’s Fiscal Crisis Is Self-Inflicted, Not Centre-Imposed”, Swarajya, March 02, 2026
“In 2017, the Comptroller and Auditor General warned that Himachal Pradesh would enter a debt trap by 2018-19. The state’s financial liabilities were already 176 per cent of its revenue receipts.
Borrowings were increasingly financing not roads or schools but the repayment of previous borrowings, the textbook definition of a debt spiral. The warning was tabled in the Assembly and noted in the press. Then, with the quiet efficiency that characterises Indian fiscal governance, it was ignored.
Nine years later, the prophecy has not merely come true; it has been exceeded. Debt has crossed ₹1 lakh crore. The proportion of public debt used solely to repay old loans has surged from 53 per cent in 2019 to 74 per cent in 2024……”
Read full article at swarajyamag.com
