With the Governor Krishan Kant Paul having given his assent on the money Bill — passed in the Assembly on June 15 amidst uproar — on Tuesday, the stage is set for the clearance of the departmental budgets. Notably, the State Government has been meeting its expenses through the vote on account passed in March.
Expressing satisfaction over the Governor having assented the money bill, the State BJP chief Ajay Bhatt said while talking to The Pioneer on Tuesday that the pace of the state’s development would now pick up in line with the developmental roadmap rolled out by the state government. “The people of the state would start reaping the benefits of the developmental schemes soon,” he said.
The state finance minister Prakash Pant said that following the assent of the Governor, the process of the passage of the budget has come to an end. “We were awaiting the assent of the Governor. Now decks have been cleared for the departments to get funds as per the allocation,” he said. He further said that the vote on account that had been passed in March was meant to meet the expenses for a limited period of time till July. “As per the budget that has been passed, the state government would spend Rs 39957.79 crore while it is expecting revenue to the tune of Rs 39912.01 crore for the year 2017-18. “We have pledged in the budget to connect all the villages of the State with roads and electricity by 2019 and home for all by 2022. Besides, we would promote run of the river hydro power projects to ensure that the natural flow of the rivers is maintained,” he said.
He further said that the state government has estimated Rs 20893.76 crore from tax receipt for the year 2017-18 while it was 18131.13 crore for the year 2016-17. “This marks around 15 percent hike in the amount to be received through tax receipt. Our expenditure would be kept lower than what we expect to earn through revenue,” he said.
Notably, the state government had claimed that total receipt would be Rs 39856.13 crore for the year 2017-18 while it was Rs 39912.01 crore in the year 2016-17.
The State Government has been expecting that their expenditure would be Rs 39957.79 crore for the year 2017-18 while the total expenditure for the year 2016-17 was Rs 32049.06 crore. The state would spend Rs 31550.83 crore through revenue expenditure while Rs 8406.96 crore from capital expenditure. It means that of the total expenditure, 78.96 percent would come under the head of the revenue expenditure while 21.06 percent, under the head of the capital expenditure. However, the revenue expenditure would be zero as, according to its claim, the total revenue expenditure would be less than the total revenue receipt while the fiscal deficit would be 2.3 percent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).
This is well within the prescribed limit of 3 percent, the State Government claimed.