Comments
Social sector and food prices are likely to be the focus of the Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dixit's budget tomorrow, a first by any Chief Minister of Delhi.
Ms Dixit, who will present her first budget in 12 years at the helm, will have to walk the tight rope in announcing new schemes as the government is already facing financial difficulties following huge spending in the CWG projects.
The Chief Minister has already indicated that social sector will get priority in her budget while education and transport sectors will continue to remain focus areas of the government.
“I have already said that our priority would be on social sector in the coming days,” Ms Dixit said when asked about the budget.
Officials involved in budget preparation indicated that allocation to various departments may also be curtailed as the government was also going through financial difficulties following huge spending on CWG projects last year.
However, the “healthy revenue collection” this fiscal has helped the government tide over the situation to a great extent and officials said they were confident of collecting more than the total projected tax revenue of Rs 15,582 crore in the financial year 2010-11.
In the budget last year, the Delhi Government had projected to collect Rs 1,060 crore from stamps and registration fees, Rs 12,000 crore from VAT, Rs 1,680 crore from excise tax, Rs 500 crore from taxes on motor vehicles and Rs 342 crore from luxury tax, entertainment tax and betting tax.
The officials also indicated that some measures may be announced to help the poor people brave high prices of essential commodities.
There are indications that allocation to education department may be increased significantly, they said, adding educational infrastructure has to be improved to implement various provisions of the Right to Education Act.
The government had allocated Rs 1,122 crore for education sector in last year's budget. Similarly the allocation for health sector, which was around Rs 1,243 crore in last year's budget, is also likely to be increased.
To tide over the financial difficulties, the government may also go for slashing subsidy to Delhi Transport Corporation and Delhi Jal Board. The total subsidy bill to both these organisations comes to around Rs 1,500 crore annually.
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.