Expenditure to shoot up

Govt inherits ₹2.07 lakh cr debt; of ₹1.18 lakh cr budget outlay, ₹14,910 cr will go for paying interests on loans, ₹20,872 cr on salaries

CHANDIGARH : There’s acute fund crunch in Punjab, and state treasury was shut after the reserve bank of India (RBI) stopped honouring state’s payments in the previous financial year, yet the finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, scrapped to present ₹1,18,238 Cr budget for the current financial year.

In the run upto assembly polls, the previous SAD-BJP government splurged in its last budget announcing doles to the tune of ₹3,000 crore and last minute conversion of the cash credit limit mess up into a loan by the previous Akali-BJP government burdened state with additional loan of ₹31,000 Cr. A deficit budget was presented where receipts (₹1,05,514 Cr) are ₹12,724 Cr less than the expenditure.

Declaring an accumulated debt of 2.07 lakh Cr, the budget speech by the FM said, major portion of the budgetary outlay would go into unproductive expenditure – ₹14,910 Cr – for paying the interests on loans, ₹20,872 Cr on salaries of the employees and ₹10,147 crore on the pensions.

In the budget proposal the state government plans to mop up ₹25,800 Cr from value added tax (VAT) projecting a jump of ₹7,500 Cr from the previous financial year and Rs. 5,422 from state excise. Rs. 2.400 Cr each from duties from stamp and electricity and ₹3,175 crore on taxes in vehicles, projecting an increase of ₹8,700 Cr in the total revenue col- lections.

Having cleared the Good and service tax (GST) bill state hopes a major boost to its finances, so much so that, FM announced in the house that it would bring back state economy on track in five years. GST would come into effect from July 1.

Apart from a debt waiver package of ₹1,500 Cr, the Congress party being in its first year of the five years term, have not kept funds outlay for a major populist measure, but it couldn’t stop the schemes it inherited from the previous government, such as the shagun scheme. ₹10 crore for mobile phones,

A sum of ₹10,255 Cr, would go into subsidy for giving free to different consumer sections out of which majority of funds would go into funding 13.5 lakh agriculture tubewells in the state.

FM’s stand in the past was to get rid of the populist measures but on taking over in March, he took a U-turn and said it was like investing in the people of the state and agriculture turning into a non profitable avocation, subsidy would give farmer a breather.

An offer was made by the Punjab CM Capt. Amarinder Singh on Monday asked prosperous farmers to forego their tubewell subsidy.

The FM had announced ₹17.66 Cr for loan waiver for SC beneficiaries who took loans from Punjab scheduled caste finance corporation, ₹200 Cr on aahirwaad scheme (shagun shcmes rechristened) in which the amlint was increased by the present government from ₹15,000 to ₹21,000 , ₹ 60 Cr on Shaheed Bhagat Singh employment generation scheme by which the government plans in which youth could become taxi operators.

The increase in social security pension increased from ₹500 to ₹750 per month, would cost government a total of ₹1314 Cr and on atta dal scheme a provision of ₹ 500 Cr was made.

There’s acute fund crunch in Punjab. The state treasury was shut after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stopped honouring its payments in the previous financial year. Yet finance minister Manpreet Badal presented ₹1,18,238 crore budget for 2017-18.

Eyeing elections, the previous SAD-BJP government was ostentatious in its last budget. It announced doles to the tune of ₹3,000 crore and the last-minute conversion of the cash-credit limit into loan burdened the state with additional loan of ₹31,000 crore.

A deficit budget was presented where receipts (₹1.05 lakh crore) were ₹12,724 crore less than the expenditure.

Declaring an accumulated debt of ₹2.07 lakh crore, Manpreet said a major portion of the budgetary outlay would go into unproductive expenditure — ₹14,910 crore for paying interests on loans, ₹20,872 crore on salaries of employees and ₹10,147 crore on pensions.

In the budget proposals, the government plans to mop up ₹25,800 crore from value added tax (VAT), projecting a jump of ₹7,500 crore from the previous financial year, and ₹5,422 from the state excise, ₹2,400 crore each from stamp and electricity duty and ₹3,175 crore on taxes in vehicles, projecting an increase of ₹8,700 crore in the total revenue collections.

Having cleared the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, the government hopes a give a boost to its finances, so much so that the FM announced in the House that it would bring back the state economy on track in five years. The GST would come into effect from July 1.

Apart from a debt-waiver package of ₹1,500 crore, the Congress, being in its first year of its term, has not kept funds outlay for major populist measures, but it couldn’t stop the schemes it inherited from the previous government, such as the shagun scheme.

A total of ₹10,255 crore will go as power subsidy of which a major chunk will be spent on funding 13.5-lakh agriculture tubewells in the state.

The FM announced ₹17.66 crore for loan waiver for Scheduled Caste beneficiaries who took money from the Punjab Scheduled Caste Finance Corporation, ₹200 crore for ashirwad (shagun) scheme in which the amount has been increased from ₹15,000 to ₹21,000.

The budget also earmarked ₹60 crore for Shaheed Bhagat Singh employment generation scheme. The social security pension has also been increased from ₹500 to ₹750 per month. A provision of ₹500 crore has been made for the atta-dal scheme.