Comments
With an eye on Assembly polls scheduled next year, the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP-led government on Monday presented a tax-free Rs 48,594.85-crore budget for 2011-12 while relying on buoyancy in the local economy to fill up the State coffers.
It also announced proposals such as free bicycle for girls, extending free healthcare facilities to backward classes and lowering the qualifying age of pension for women as sops to woo the masses.
For ‘aam admi'
“This is a budget for ‘aam admi' as no new taxes are being proposed. The increased resources shall become available on account of buoyancy in economy in the state and better tax administration,” the Finance Minister, Ms Upinderjit Kaur, said after presenting the budget in the Assembly.
Further, she pegged the State revenue deficit at 1.33 per cent of gross state domestic product (GSDP) at Rs 3,378.99 crore and fiscal deficit at 3.45 per cent of GSDP at Rs 8,801.33 crore.
The Minister said that though the revenue deficit and fiscal deficit were within the parameters of 13th Finance Commission, the deficit would come down on the back of increasing revenue triggered by buoyancy in the economy.
The total size of the budget is kept at Rs 48,594.85 crore while revenue receipts and revenue expenditure are proposed at Rs 32,026.76 crore and 35,405.75 crore, respectively.
Announcing an annual Plan of Rs 11,500 crore, considered the highest for the state, Ms Kaur allotted the chunk of the fund (30.94 per cent) for education, health, welfare and social security sector, followed by the power sector, which cornered 28.80 per cent share at Rs 3,311.66 crore.
Presenting a grim picture of the State's finances, the Minister in her about two-hour long speech projected the state debt to go up to Rs 77,585 crore in 2011-12 compared to the estimated debt of Rs 69,549 crore in 2010-11.
Admitting that the state was facing huge debt liability, Ms Kaur attributed the rise in increasing debt to less share of state in central taxes and rise in salary and wages expenditure.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.