Pegging the fiscal deficit for year 2016-17 at Rs25115.98 crore, Haryana Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu on Monday presented Rs88781.96 crore budget for next fiscal year, announcing no new taxes and a slew of schemes.
With an eye on supporting the small tax payer, the BJP led Haryana Government announced to cut tax on footwear having MRP above Rs 500 from 12.5 percent to 5 percent, exempt shoe uppers from VAT, exempt tax on ‘Khal, Binoli, Besan and cotton yarn manufactured and ‘Chhota Toka’ (leafy vegetable cutter for kitchen), reduced tax from 12.5 percent to 5 percent on sale of electrical vehicles.
The tax exemptions will put an additional burden of around Rs50 crore to the state exchequer. Capt. Abhimanyu also announced to introduce a scheme to grant relief in respect of tax, interest, penalty and other dues to the affected registered dealers whose goods were destroyed during the Jat reservation stir last month.
The Finance Minister while presenting the second budget of Manohar lal Khattar led BJP government in Haryana which came to power in 2014 said that the total expenditure under the budget estimates 2016-17 is projected at Rs88,781.96 crore of which plan expenditure is Rs40,256.21 crore (45.3 per cent) and non-plan expenditure is Rs48,525.75 crore (54.7 per cent).
Stating that the budget is being presented amidst a difficult time when the state is facing a number of challenges, Capt. Abhimanyu said that an increase of 28.4 percent has been proposed from budget estimates of Rs69140 crore in 2015-16 to BE of Rs 88,781.96 crore in next fiscal year.
The projected revenue deficit for the fiscal 2016-17 has been put at Rs12280.35 crore while it was projected at Rs9557.52 crore in 2015-16. The fiscal deficit has been put at Rs25115.96 or 2.47 percent of the GSDP while it was projected at 16423.58 crore in the ongoing fiscal year, he said.
The budget proposed hiked allocations to key sectors like agriculture, power, education and allied sectors and concessions to boost infrastructure, manufacturing and job creation.
Elaborating, he said that a major chunk Rs16.826.70 crore has been allocated to power sector while Rs14305.34 crore has been proposed for education sector in Haryana.
He also announced to raise the salaries and allowances of state employees after the Central Government takes a call on the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission which has already submitted its report. A suitable provision has been made in the budgetary estimates for 2016-17, he informed.
Amid the escalating tussle between Punjab and Haryana over SYl canal, Capt Abhimanyu also reiterated the commitment of State Government to get Haryana’s legitimate share of Ravi-Beas Water after completion of the Sutlej Yamuna link Canal. The House, as a representative of more than 2.5 crore people of the state, has unanimously resolved to ensure the earliest completion of the SYl canal, said he.
Presenting the budget in the golden jubilee year of the state, Capt. Abhimanyu said that the Government has set apart Rs1,657.04 crore for as many as 28 Swaran Jayanti Schemes proposed to be launched during the financial year 2016-17. A total of 44 new schemes with planned expenditure of Rs10,896 crore have been proposed in the budget for next financial year.
Claiming to have received a shattered economy from the previous Congress Government, the Finance Minister said that the macroeconomic management of BJP Government has shown significant improvement in the economic parameters like revenue deficit, fiscal deficit, etc.
No fresh taxes have been proposed in the budget for 2016-17 which proposes a host of concessions to give infrastructure a leg-up, boost manufacturing and job creation, both in urban and rural areas, hikes allocations to key sectors and outlines some first-time measures to ensure transparency and keep a tight leash on fiscal and financial management, said the Minister.
Capt Abhimanyu said, “There has been a jump in the state's own taxes as a percentage of the Gross State Domestic Product from 6.3 percent in 2014-15 to 6.9 percent in 2015-16. More impressive is the fact that this ratio has been showing a declining trend from 2011-12 onwards for four years before this turnaround in 2015-16. In 2016-17, we expect this ratio to be around the same level.”
He said that the per capita income at current prices in 2015-16 is likely to reach Rs165204 as against Rs150260 in 2014-15. Capt Abhimanyu also outlined a series of innovative measures to ensure tight fiscal and financial management of funds and bring in higher levels of transparency and accountability in making the system more efficient and economical.
These include, among other things, opening of Personal ledger Accounts (PlA) instead of banks accounts by all departments, minimising non-plan expenditure by freezing the amount for contractual engagements, and setting up of a Debt and Cash Management Cell (DMC) in the Finance Department for effective monitoring and management of debt and cash flow.
The Finance Minister concluded his budget speech with the couplets by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, “Susmit harshit kaisa shram shlath, Asafal, Safal samaan manorath, Sab kuch dekar kuch na maangte, Pawas bankar dhalna hoga, Kadam milakar chalna hoga.”