Hours after policy experts blamed subsidies for the receding water table, Punjab Finance minister Harpal Cheema Thursday said that subsidies will continue uninterrupted and the state has enough resources.

Speaking to mediapersons at his residence, Cheema said, “There will be no rationalisation. Punjab is a welfare state. We want the last person in the line to be benefitted. We will enhance our collections in such a way that these would not pinch. Look at the GST and excise growth. We have recorded an increase of 100 per cent under every head. It has been unprecedented.”

He said the government was planning to provide solar pumps to small farmers who were not beneficiaries of free power as they did not have Tubewells. He said the state had fared much better than previous governments in finances. Cheema said that the treasury was never closed during the AAP government, while it was closed twice during the Akali-BJP government. He said that the e-Deposit Management System (EDMS) has been implemented to prevent fraud in the banking sector.

He said that the government has achieved all its targets in four years. He said that net Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections for the financial year 2025-26 have increased significantly by 12.52 percent till March. He said that GST collections have increased from Rs 1,913.82 crore in March 2025 to Rs 2,231.93 crore, which implies a net profit of Rs 1,913.82 crore in 2025-26. 318.11 crore, a growth of 16.6 percent, and a robust 18 percent growth in SGST cash collections in March, compared to the national growth rate of around 7 percent, placing Punjab among the best-performing large states in the country.

Responding to criticism from opposition parties regarding Punjab’s economic condition, the Finance Minister challenged former Finance Ministers to debate the state of Punjab’s finances. Cheema claimed that Punjab has taken several initiatives in financial reforms in the country, resulting in the state receiving a grant of Rs 400 crore in the recently concluded financial year.

Registration for the Maa-Beti Satkar Yojana, which provides Rs 1,000 to women in the general category and Rs 1,500 to women from the Scheduled Castes, will begin on April 13. He said that income tax payers, wives of government employees, MPs, MLAs, are excluded from the scheme, while Anganwadi workers, mid-day meal workers, and women in private jobs will benefit from the scheme.

Responding to a question about disbursing DA instalments to government employees, he said that Rs 14,191 crore pending during the previous Congress government has already been disbursed, and the government is considering disbursing DA and the old pension scheme during its tenure.

Regarding the Chief Minister’s comments about not repaying the debt, Cheema said that other states are also continuously borrowing. The central government’s debt in 2014 was Rs 55 lakh crore, which has now increased to Rs 212 lakh crore. Similarly, other states are also continuously borrowing. Cheema said that when the AAP government came to power, the Consolidated Sinking Fund had Rs 2980 crore, and now this fund has increased to Rs 10738 crore. He said that a Consolidated Sinking Fund has been created to borrow up to Rs 6,000 crore at a rate 2 per cent below the repo rate.