Dharmani urges Centre to exempt Himachal’s share in railway projects
Technical education minister Rajesh Dharmani, in a pre-budget meeting held at Jaisalmer, urged the finance minister that the ongoing railway — Bhanupalli-Bilaspur rail project and Chandigarh Baddi railway projects— should be purely implemented by the central government
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Himachal Pradesh government has once again raised the issue of exempting state’s share in railway projects with Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.
Technical education minister Rajesh Dharmani, in a pre-budget meeting held at Jaisalmer, urged the finance minister that the ongoing railway — Bhanupalli-Bilaspur rail project and Chandigarh Baddi railway projects— should be purely implemented by the central government in place of joint ventures and Himachal being a hilly state and having International Border (IB) with China should be exempted from paying its share.
It may be mentioned that Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had recently informed the Lok Sabha that two new rail line projects — Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Beri (63.5 km) and Chandigarh-Baddi (30 km) — have been affected due to non-fulfilment of commitments by the Himachal Pradesh government as ₹1496.75 crore is outstanding with the state government. This was stated in response to a question by MP Suresh Kumar Kashyap. The Union minister said the two new line projects falling fully/partly in Himachal Pradesh have been sanctioned on cost cost-sharing basis with the state government.
Dharmani also urged the minister to provide at least 50% central share to acquire land for expansion of Kangra Airport.
In the pre-budget meeting, the minister also advocated for continuing special central assistance (SCA) and enhancing RDG grants and central road infrastructural fund (CRIF), which has been decreased from ₹11,140 crores in 2020-21 to ₹3,256 crores in 2025-26.
Apart from this, he also requested the Union minister to include ropeways under the PMGSY scheme and also provide the 10% state share and five five-year maintenance cost of PMGSY works and emphasised establishing skill university in the state with multi-disciplinary institutions of technical, and vocational education and research with special focus on geometrics engineering, geosciences, environment engineering, disaster-related studies, new age technology courses etc.
He also urged the finance minister to increase customs duty from 50% to 100% on the import of apples to protect the interest of apple growers.
‘Compensate state as per ‘Kyoto Protocol’ norms’
In the 55th meeting of the GST council, Dharmani raised the issue of compensating the state on the analogy of the “Kyoto Protocol’, which provides for compensating low carbon emission countries in comparison to the nations with high carbon emissions. He also argued in favour of factoring in low population density.
Dharmani took up the issue of GST compensation and urged to introduce some arrangements so that hilly states like Himachal could be compensated for the loss of revenue due to GST implementation. He also took up the issue of ₹200 crore demand notices issued by CGST authorities to toll lessees of Himachal Pradesh.
As the council deliberated extensively on easing the tax burden in the insurance sector before, where Dharmani strongly advocated in favour of exempting individual health and term insurance policies, especially for women, children and senior citizens. He also argued in favour of exempting GST on research and development for an initial ten to fifteen years including for public as well as private entrepreneurs.
