White paper on Punjab slammed

chandigarh: terming the ‘white paper on the state’s finances,’ tabled by the congress government in the punjab assembly last month, as ‘half truth,’ former punjab finance minister kanwaljit singh on monday warned the ruling party to first put its own house in order, desist from levying any fresh taxes, exercise restraint in government expenditure and above all plug loopholes in collection of sales tax revenue which alone could fetch the exchequer an additional rs 1,000 crore annually. the white paper, he said, itself traces the history of imbalances in the fiscal position of punjab beginning 1994. it was the congress which ran the affairs of punjab till 1997 either through president’s rule or directly. therefore, it cannot escape responsibility. although kanwaljit’s successor lal singh has stated that punjab has been forced into a debt trap, the former saysthat the debt raised for development works is not bad.