In the election year, Punjab Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa on Tuesday came out with please-all Budget in which no new tax has been imposed, despite rising financial woes of the State.
In his last Budget before the Vidhan Sabha elections slated next year, Dhindsa doled out sops for each and every segment of society right from farmer to youth, women, traders and industry, even the economically weaker section has been tried to be taken as a separate class leaving asides the bars of castes.
While the Budget clearly gives a clear indication of furthering the agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by stressing on skill development, it also gives glimpse of the growing impression of new emerging political force in the State Aam Aadmi Party, and the Finance Minister has tried to tackle all the challenges in one go.
Dhindsa proposed a Budget of Rs 86,387 crore in which the actual size of the Budget for the next fiscal is Rs 66,887 as Rs 19,550 has been kept for ways and means of current financial year.
The Finance Minister has proposed an expenditure of Rs 66,887 crore in the next fiscal as against the current year’s figure of expenditure stands at Rs 61,600 crore. While he has estimated an income of 66,095 crores that includes Rs 50,181 crore of revenue receipts and Rs 15,914 crore of capital receipts as against the current year figures of Rs 45,603 crore and Rs 14,660 crore, respectively.
Putting aside the woes of financial crunch, Dhindsa announced interest free crop loans for small farmers, interest free education loans to SC, BC students. In an attempt to revive the real estate sector in the state, he announced 50 % reduction in the Change of land use charges for the new projects and reduction in stamp duty.
In his budget speech, Dhindsa said that the GSDP has increased more than three fold in last nine years during the tenure of present SAD-BJP combine and reached Rs 4,08,815 crore for the year 2015-16. He said that the GSDP is expected to grow to Rs 4,54,398 crore during the year 2016-17.
As per advance estimates, the GSDP at constant prices is expected to grow at 5.96% in the current fiscal year against growth rate of 4.92% in the year 2014-15. He claimed that the per capita income of the state has increased to Rs 1,26,063 in the year 2015-16 from Rs 41,883 in 2006-07.
Attributing the growing debt to the earlier times, Dhindsa said that the debt is primarily hanging on the state since 1992. Projecting a debt of 1.38 lac crore at the end of next fiscal, Dhindsa said that the current fiscal is expected to end with the debt figure stand at 1.24 lac crore. He presented size of annual plan has been projected at Rs 25,479 crore for 2016-17, with an increase of 20 per cent over current fiscal’s plan of Rs 21,174 crore.
Key announcements
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
Special women patrolling teams would be constituted for carrying out patrolling around schools, colleges, markets places, malls and multiplexes to strengthen the security mechanism for women.
A women safety application, Shakti, will also be launched soon. By using this application, women in distress can alert their relatives and local police through a single click on the mobile.
Free school bags containing stationery items will be provided to girl students in government schools from 1st to 12th classes. These bags will also contain “Benefit Eligibility Card” showing benefits being provided to girls under various schemes under “Swasth Kanya Yojna” with an outlay of Rs 70 crore in the next fiscal.
For EWS YOUTH
Youth from economically weaker sections will be given interest free education loan upto Rs 5 lac for the duration of the course through the Central Cooperative Banks. The wards of families having annual income of upto Rs 3 lac will be eligible for this loan.
200 skill development centres in rural areas, with atleast one skill centre in each block will be started so that rural youth particularly girls can be provided skill training to earn their livelihood. The Government will spend Rs 50 crore in setting up these centres and provide Rs 20 crore extra towards training specially of girls in rural areas.
4,000 modern gymnasium centres equipped with latest equipments in various towns and villages will be set up. Rs 200 crore is expected to be the expenditure.
An allocation of Rs 75 crore has been made to distribute sports kits to youth clubs. A new scheme ‘Startup Program for Innovation Research and Enterprise (SPIRE-Punjab)’ to provide financial assistance to Start-ups in partnership with the Research Institutions like IIT, ISB, NABI etc. and the Industry has been introduced with an allocation of Rs 100 crore.
For FARMERS
Interest free crop loan of Rs 50,000 per crop to small and marginal farmers having land holding up to 5 acres. State Government will bear the burden of interest on such loans and it will cost around 200 crore to the State. 10 lac farmers are expected to be benefited with this scheme.
To provide secure and stable income to farmers, a new Farmers Provident Fund-cum-Pension Scheme has been announced. The beneficiary will pay an annual contribution for at least 10 years and Government will make a matching annual contribution in the scheme. Beneficiary farmers will be paid monthly pension equivalent to the interest on the accumulated corpus at the age of 60.
It has been decided to abolish VAT of 6.05% on raw honey and bee-keeping equipment has been abolished. And the Pig feed is also proposed to be exempted from VAT of 6.05%.
For SC WElFARE
Setting up a SC Scholarship Fund with a corpus of Rs 100 crore is proposed. The fund will be given to Universities and Institutes on behalf of all SC students who are going to pursue higher studies at the time of admission.
A new scheme with an outlay of Rs 2.50 crore has also been included in Annual Plan 2016-17 for providing uniforms, school bags and stationery to the children of Scheduled Caste families working as agricultural labourers in the State.
For EDUCATION
400 middle schools have been proposed to be upgraded to high schools. It is also proposed to upgrade 400 high schools to senior secondary schools during the year 2016-17. An amount of Rs 225 crore has been earmarked for the purpose.
For RURAl DEVElOPMENT
Budget proposes to develop 200 smart villages in the year 2016-17 which will be provided with facilities like 4G connectivity, solar street lights, sewa kendras, sewerage and drainage facilities, bank branch and model school etc.
The State Government has started Rural Mission to improve rural infrastructure for socio-economic development of rural population. A sum of Rs 2,000 crore will be provided by PIDB to improve rural infrastructure for socio-economic development of rural population.