Riding high on the massive share from ongoing coal block auctions, the BJP-led Government in Jharkhand may go for numerous social welfare schemes in the days to come. The Government dropped sufficient hints in this regard on Monday on eve of annual Budget. Justifying the logic behind bringing in the 3rd Supplementary Budget amounting Rs 1778.22 crore, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saryu Roy said that the Government should make itself prepared for that type of expenditure in the next fiscal; a step needed to bring Jharkhand at its ‘take-off stage’.
“Jharkhand is not a revenue deficit State and we can maintain the fiscal responsibilities as per the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBM). As far as expenditure is concerned, we can come up in the new fiscal with more ambitious plans and schemes to utilise the revenue coming from the Centre as State share in the coal block auctioning is going to be huge.
The guideline of the Centre says that the State where coal block is situated would be getting nearly 85 per cent of the price of the block auctioned,” said Roy defending the practice of bringing Supplementary Budgets. Jharkhand is blessed with numerous coal blocks and other minerals which have to be distributed through open bidding route under the present dispensation.
The process of allocation has started and trends suggest that aggressive bidding is fetching amount unexpected to the exchequer. Recently during his Jharkhand visit Coal Secretary Anil Swarup had said that Jharkhand would get royalty of Rs 14,000 crore from the coal block auctioning. Indications are that the Government may hike its plans size considerably looking at the resources available with it in present scenario and several new measures may be announced for skill development, employment generation, industries and agriculture promotion. Jharkhand’s annual budget plan for FY 2014-15 was Rs 24,254 crore.
Roy also assured the members that the Supplementary Budget would not be putting additional burden on the State exchequer. “The previous Government could not do much spending with one obvious reason and that was two elections held. But their faulty planning was also behind sloppy expenditure. We have tried to justify the allocations among the departments. As there are several rail projects pending in the State and we are committed to complete those by 2017 the money was required,” added the Minister.
Earlier JVM’s Pradeep Yadav opposed the demand for grant terming it futile as lower expenditure has taken place and when just a month is remaining in the new fiscal to start. He also questioned the Government’s decision to hike VAT on petroleum products just before the Session. Congress’ Alamgir Alam termed it as an exercise done for ‘March loot’.
BJP’s Radha Krishna Kishore defended the demand underlining its requirement for irrigation projects and other schemes meant for poor. “Productivity of food grains is among the lowest in Jharkhand which need to be improved and for that irrigation projects are needed to be promoted. This Government has corrected the misdeeds of the previous one,” said he. Finally, the Supplementary Budget was passed with voice vote by the House.