If you are heading to Goa for summer, be ready to shell out a few more rupees for that favourite beer, with chief minister Manohar Parrikar in his budget, hiking excise duty on the light beverage, while also increasing VAT on petrol by three per cent.
The Rs 202.48 crore surplus budget also calls for linking of all State Government schemes to the Aadhaar card database, while also promising 4,000 jobs in the Information Technology sector every year.
The Budget which was presented by Parrikar on Friday also promised a beggar and garbage free Goa in the coming years, while promising a six per cent growth in the agriculture sector and assuring more focus on horticulture.
The Opposition has called the budget, an exercise without focus and lacking in social commitment.
The Budget, Parrikar’s first, since relinquishing the Defence Ministry and taking over as the Chief Minister of Goa, also proposes to incentivise cashless transactions.
“I propose to marginally enhance the excise duty on beer manufactured in Goa or imported from the rest of India or from outside India and sold in Goa,” Parrikar told the State legislative Assembly on Friday.
While a bulk litre of light beer will now cost Rs 20, strong beer with an alcohol percentage of five and above will cost Rs 24. Expensive, top-end hard liquor has also not escaped the tax net in Parrikar’s budgetary proposals too.
“I propose to levy an additional fee of Rs. 1 lakh to the manufacturer of high bouquet spirits who import concentrated alcoholic beverages, for the purpose of sales to other manufacturers, within or outside the State,” Parrikar said.
Petrol will also be more expensive in Goa, with Parrikar, who heads a BJP-led coalition government, proposing a three per cent increase in VAT on the f. With the increase, the price of petrol is expected to touch Rs. 65.
“My government since last five years has been able to maintain the promise given to the people of the State in the year 2012, and has ensured that the prices of motor spirit i.e. petrol did not cross the threshold level of Rs. 60 per litre. The prices of Petrol in Goa are significantly lower compared to the neighbouring States of Karnataka and Maharashtra, where this fuel is sold at Rs 72 and Rs 76, respectively,” Parrikar said.
VAT had been abolished by the earlier BJP-led coalition government in 2012 as part of a poll promise.
Making a string of new announcements in the social welfare sector, Parrikar also said that current doles to housewives, senior citizens, as well as other sections of society would henceforth be linked to inflation, after the completion of an impact assessment study of the populist schemes.are policy for care of senior citizens, while also announcing the starting of autism centres to cater to the population of nearly 6000 autistic children.