Riding high on the hike in central taxes share coming from the Centre, Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Tuesday tabled the State’s annual budget with priorities ranging from roads, human resource development, power plants, women safety to Knowledge City and three new medical colleges in the Assembly.
Das, who also happens to be the Finance Minister, proposed to reduce VAT on raw materials used in iron and steel based micro, small and medium scale industries to 2.5 per cent from 5 per cent and on plywood to 5 per cent from 14 per cent. He did not propose to impose any new taxes, besides abolishing taxes on dharamshalas and community bhavans.
The Budget amounting to Rs55,492.95 crore has projected to spend Rs32,136.84 crore on development projects (Plan head), witnessing a quantum jump of around Rs5,382 crore this fiscal compared to Rs26,754.97 crore last year. State’s own share in the plan budget would be Rs22,526.70 crore — Rs4,256.70 crore more than the previous FY.
The State is expected to get Rs9,048.89 crore in the form of Central assistance while Rs561.25 crore would be under the Centrally-sponsored schemes.The allocation for the non-plan expenditures (meant for salary payments and establishment costs) was pegged at Rs23,356.11 crore.
Distribution of the Budget among 39 departments shows priority areas of the Government. The HRD department has run away with the largest share of Rs4,200 crore followed by Rural Development (Rs3,164 crore), Road Construction (Rs3,000 crore) and Health with Rs2089.70 crore.
Moreover, disappointment came for agriculture, which is considered priority sector on which over 70 per cent population of the State is dependent. Just Rs806 crore has been earmarked for it.
Das also unveiled a slew of measures to ensure timely expenditure of the allocations and at the same time to infuse transparency into the system. “Capacity building would be special focus of this Government. To improve transparency, accountability and peoples’ participation, the Government would promote e-governance in villages and e-city in towns so that people can get maximum benefit out of the schemes,” said the CM.
In the Budget, the Government also announced to appoint one lakh people in the next one year, predicting its GSDP growth at 14.63 per cent, per capita income Rs59,817 and aimed to keep its fiscal deficit under 3 per cent benchmark set under FRBM Act; i.e. 2.28 per cent of the GSDP projection.
Das also announced some ambitious schemes to provide impetus to priority sectors in the State. Agriculture equipment banks in every block and panchayat, Jalnidhi scheme for building small ponds, krishi clinics, 4,000 MW power generation by joint venture with NTPC, rooftop solar plants at important offices and hospitals, appointment of 10,927 malnutrition assistants, three medical colleges and procurement policy for industries have been found mention in the budget.
Also, 26,443,330 people would be benefited under Food Security Act to be rolled out in the State. Rs5 crore has been set aside for ‘CM Smart Village’ dominated by tribals and SCs for their cultural, social and economic development.
Budget also proposed to replace the existing Vigilance Bureau with ‘Anti-corruption Bureau’ with branches at divisional levels. New Anti-terrorism squad would come up along with ‘Investigation Training School’ at Ranchi for training purposes. Anti-naxal operations would be conducted in Sarju and Jumra areas in the line of Saranda Action Plan.
Pointing his fingers towards missing infrastructure for the capital city the CM said, “The Government has taken seriously the construction of new capital and put it on priority. New Assembly, Secretariat and other buildings would be built with modern infrastructure with latest architectural designs and in accordance with environmental norms. Construction of Knowledge City at Khunti on 410 acre of land would be started in 2015-16.”
On urban amenities front, a feasibility study would be conducted for operating Mono Rail in Ranchi. 90 kilometre stretch between Ranchi-Bokaro would be connected with Expressway at the cost of Rs1,830 crore on PPP mode. This apart, an industrial corridor would be set up in which Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Ranchi would be linked with six-lane ‘Golden Triangle.’
Rs3 crore has been allocated for IIIT which is to be built on PPP mode with Centre’s assistance. 13 new polytechnic colleges at the expenditure of Rs25.58 crore each would also be set up. State’s first Women Engineering College would come up at Ramgarh. The Government also announced ‘Tejaswini’ scheme in 17 districts to make girls in 11-25 age group self-reliant. ‘Nari Uuthan Kosh’ would be set up for women preparing for civil services.