Under fire for presenting a “debt-ridden” budget for current fiscal 2017-18, the Manohar lal Khattar Government has chalked out proposals including establishing an Advertisement Corporation and centralised organisation for tax collection, with an aim to reduce the debt burden besides generating additional resources.
Haryana Vision document 2030, prepared by the State Government has envisaged several policy measures to reduce both the fiscal and revenue deficit besides leveraging additional resources.
The BJP led Haryana Government had projected its debt liability at Rs 1,41,854 crore (with UDAY scheme) for the fiscal 2017-18, up by 13 per cent over the debt of Rs 1.24 lakh crore (revised estimates) for 2016-17.
Interestingly, when the first BJP government came to power in Haryana in 2014, the debt stood at Rs 70,931 crore (2014-15) which has doubled since then. As per the UDAY scheme, the State Government has taken over 75 percent of the outstanding debt of the power discoms, which remains the biggest challenge facing the state’s economy.
“A proposal is under consideration for leveraging additional resources by establishing an Advertisement Corporation in the state. The Government is also considering setting up an organisation for the centralised collection of property tax and other taxes and dues from urban local bodies, departments and boards in the state,” said a senior official of the State Government.
The official said that the government is also exploring options to work with private organisations to build financially sustainable and implementable schemes for the welfare of people besides meeting government’s commitment towards achieving sustainable development goals (SDG) as envisaged in Haryana Vision Document 2030.
The Vision Document 2030, prepared by the Government has emphasised on continuing the partnerships which help the government meet the shortfall in funding its SDG commitments, including PPP models, CSR initiatives and broader private sector engagement.
The implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July onwards is also expected to increase resources available to the state for development activity, stated the Vision Document.
To address the growing demand of capital expenditure, the government would also examine the possibility of working with civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations to broaden the reach and scope of existing projects and to make implementation more cost-effective.
The Vision Document has also proposed rationalising the raw water charges for water appropriated by the Irrigation Department for drinking and other purposes, increase the rate of user charges and introduction of citizen-centric programming that puts information technology at the core of government services.
Expressing concern over the low growth of agriculture sector in the state, it stated that the growth of agriculture sector is crucial and the government will strive to accelerate the growth rate in primary sector through interventions focusing on crop and livestock activities
To general additional revenue, the State Government had in the past revised the existing rates of taxes including registration fee of property, registration of flats and other fees of the revenue department.
Notably, Haryana Government had imposed no new taxes in the annual record budget of Rs 1,02,329.35 crore for current financial year 2017-18. Pegging the fiscal deficit for year 2017-18 at Rs 17571.84 crore and revenue deficit at Rs 11124.96 crore, the State Government had proposed to create a dedicated “Asset Augmentation Fund” for strengthening public assets in the State.