Chandigarh, March 17 -- Punjab's fiscal stress is rising due to a continuous mismatch between receipts and expenditure, increasing deficits, growing liabilities, and the use of borrowed funds for meeting current consumption and debt servicing - factors that are putting pressure on the state's financial sustainability.

These findings, which highlight a troubling pattern, were made by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report on state finances for 2023-24. The report was tabled in the Punjab Vidan Sabha on Monday, the last day of the budget session. The report revealed that the state's finances were marked by an increasing trend of liabilities - debt, guarantees, off-budget borrowings, etc, which pose a risk to the target of ...