Gujarat presents Vote-on-Account with no tax proposals

The Gujarat Government on Tuesday presented Vote-on-Account for the year 2019-20 with gross surplus estimates of ₹12,241.40 crore without any tax proposals.

Revenue receipts for the year 2019-20 is estimated at ₹1,54,885 crore, while revenue expenditure is estimated at ₹1,45,022 crore.

Why a Vote-on-Account?

With General Elections being planned in a few weeks, the Gujarat Finance Minister Nitin Patel said in his Budget address that “sufficient time is not there to think over the demands of this year. Hence, Vote on Account proposal for period of four months upto July 31, 2019 will be presented before the House. House will be able to discuss the demand for the whole year when modified budget will be presented.”

The State government did not levy any new taxes as tax income has increased following the effective steps of tax compliance and tax collections. “In the financial year 2016-17, the State government's own tax income was ₹64,443 crore which increased to ₹71,549 crore in the year 2017-18,” Patel said, adding that the State's financial management was lauded by the Fifteenth Finance Commission during their recent visit to the State.

State economy

The State's GSDP is reported at ₹13.15 lakh crore during 2017-18, showing a growth of 14 per cent over previous year.

As per the revised estimates for the year 2018-19, the State is estimated to have surplus of ₹1,374.18 crore as against the previously estimated surplus of ₹783.02 crore.

On the prudent financial discipline of the State, Patel quoted CRISIL’s latest State of Growth 2.0 report saying that Gujarat’s average annual economic growth rate for the period 2013-17 stood at 9.9 per cent at constant prices — highest among the states. For the year 2017-18, Gujarat registered growth of 11.2 per cent.

During the year 2017-18, the per capita income of the State at current prices stood at ₹1,71,652, which is 12.6 per cent higher than previous year. The share of Gujarat's industrial output in national output stood at 16.8 per cent.

Electricity bill waiver

In a pro-poor measure, the State government also announced a One-Time Waiver scheme for electricity bills. Patel said that the principal and interest and penalty amount of electricity bills of all eligible domestic power connections of Below Poverty Line (BPL) consumers in urban and rural areas will be waived. This means outstanding dues amount of ₹691 crore will be waived.

The Minister further stated that Gujarat has been on the forefront in the electricity consumption. The per capita annual power consumption of electricity in the State was 1,424 unts in 2007-08, which increased to 2,007 units in 2017-18. India's average per capita annual power consumption is 1,149 units.

Combating drought

Gujarat's agriculture production grew by 12.11 per cent, while State contributed 7.3 per cent in the country's agriculture economy.

Claiming credit for agriculture power connections, Patel stated that in 40 years, between 1960-2001, a total of 6.94 lakh agriculture power connections were given, while since 2001, over 11 lakh agriculture power connections were given.

On the drought situation, Patel informed the house that the State government has declared 6,174 villages of 96 talukas as scarcity-hit. About 16.27 lakh farmers from these talukas have been paid ₹1,557 crore as assistance. The government has introduced a special assistance package of ₹2,285 crore for over 23 lakh farmers and cattle owners of 96 talukas of the state.

Patel stated that as per the 19th Livestock Census, with rise of 15.36 per cent in livestock population, Gujarat ranks first in the country. In the past 15 years, the per capita availability of milk in the state improved by 243 grams per day and is now 564 grams per day, he said.

Narmada lifeline

For the Narmada Dam project, Patel informed the house that out of the total length of 71,748 km of Sardar Sarovar canal network, 84 per cent or 60,427 km has been completed. And between 2001-2008, a total of ₹51,786 crore was spent on the project, and a provision of ₹6,945 crore has been made for the year 2019-20. Under this scheme, a total of 9,083 villages and 166 cities were supplied domestic water.

In other highlights of the budget, Patel announced increase in VAT subsidy on diesel for fishing boats from ₹12 a litre to ₹15. The much-awaited Ahmedabad Metro rail Phase-I will have a commercial run on a 6.5 km route by March 2019.

For the year 2017-18, 311 million tonnes of goods were transported through various ports in Gujarat, which is 31 per cent of the total transportation in the country.

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