The Punjab Government on Thursday sought an all India farm debt waiver scheme, on the pattern of Punjab, while calling for restoration of the 90:10 funding pattern under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) to provide more avenues to the States to determine priorities in agriculture sector. Besides, the Government also demanded its inclusion under the special category for Border Area Development Programme.
Presenting the Punjab’s case in the deliberations during the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's pre-budget 2018-19 meeting with state finance ministers, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal stressed on the need for close coordination between the Centre and the states.
Manpreet also requested the Centre to provide a special grant of Rs 500 crores to Punjab Government to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. Besides, another Rs 100 crore was also sought for academic, research and museum projects for observing the 550th year celebrations in a most befitting manner.
A special grant of Rs 100 crore was also sought for improvement of the Jallianwala Bagh monument, its surrounding environs and to observe the centenary of massacre in 2019.
Raising concerns over the state’s natural boundaries with Pakistan, Manpreet urged that Centre to provide a special grant to line by studs and spurs in the rivers forming natural countries. To combat terror activities, the Minister demanded a special package for purchase of equipment to modernize the police to counter anti-terrorism operations efficaciously.
Advocating the need to make states financially more strong, Manpreet said that Centre should release the share of Central Taxes on
account of tax devolution of corporate tax and income tax on a monthly basis instead of four quarterly instalments in 2018-19, to avert severe impact on development works in states, besides increasing fiscal stress.
“Increasing the RKVY ratio back to 90:10 from 60:40 would not only help in boosting Agriculture infrastructure, farm extension activities and diversification but also in achieving Centre’s (GoI) vision of doubling farm income by 2022,” he said.
Manpreet suggested that a special cess of 0.5 percent can be levied on payees having more than Rs five lakh annual income with a view to create a corpus for bailing out beleaguered farmers or farm suicides besides soil rejuvenation and tackling the issue of groundwater depletion.
Raising the demand to cover Border Area Development Programme (BADP) under special category, he said that since 2016-17, this programme had been converted to 60:40 between the Centre and the non-special category states.
“For the special category states, the ratio was 90:10. With the changed funding pattern, Punjab, which is a non-special category state, had to bear an additional amount of Rs 25 crore approximately annually, on account of meeting 40 percent of the state share.
The state has also requested the Central Government to consider institutionalizing a grant or economic package for development of Border Areas of Punjab, which it deserves on account of National Security,” he said.