The Chhattisgarh Government announced on Monday that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is to be implemented shortly, so no major change in the tax structure is proposed in the Annual Budget 2017-18.
Although, consumers will get half a percent tax relief in case of payment through digital mode except for specified articles like cement, steel, coal, diesel, petrol, kerosene, motor vehicle, pan masala, tobacco products. This arrangement will operate till the time GST is implemented, it informed.
The budget allocates 36 percent of expenditure in development heads for Scheduled Tribe (ST) sector and 12 percent for the Scheduled Caste (SC) sector.
The Social sector expenditure is estimated at 41 percent and economic sector expenditure at 38 percent of the total expenditure.
Dial 112 scheme to provide speedy police assistance in cases of crime, accidents, any medical emergency. Police assistance to be provided in 10 minutes in urban areas and half an hour in rural areas with budget provision of Rs 50 crore to implement the scheme.
A total of 10,000 houses for police personnel and 6,424 houses for Government staff to be constructed in two years.
There will be 200 posts of Patwari, 300 of Revenue Inspector, 27 of Tehsildar and 50 of Nayab Tehsildar will be created with a budget provision of Rs 18 crore.
Eight new police stations, 6 new police posts and upgradation of one police post has budget provision of Rs 13.34 crore.
The E-Track system in Transport Department had been allocated Rs 5.22 crore.
There had been an allocation of Rs 3,600 for food security and Rs 709 crore for social security pension scheme in the budget.
The Agriculture budget had been put at Rs 10,433 crore- a 26 per cent hike compared to 2016-17. The budget allocation for minor irrigation scheme is Rs 131 crore and Rs 25 crore had been allocated for Organic Farming Mission.
A provision of Rs 44.30 crore had been made for providing drip irrigation facility in 5,000 hectares of land cultivating horticulture crops.
A provision of Rs 164.33 crore had been made for Integrated Horticulture Development Mission.
The budget has provisioned Rs one crore for setting up a Biotechnology Park.
The Government has plans to set up Kendriya Vidyalayas at Bijapur, Sukma and Kondagaon.
The budget has provisioned Rs 18.16 crore for setting up a 200-bed Mental Hospital at Sendri in Bilaspur. A cancer hospital would be established at Manendragarh at a cost of Rs 10 crore.
This apart the government has provisioned Rs 1,171 crore for Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).
In the Infrastructure sector, the budget had provisioned Rs 554 crore under ‘Saur Sujla Yojana’. All habitations are to be electrified by March 2018 at a cost of Rs 140 crore.
A provision of Rs 2,171 crore had been made for providing free electricity to the farmers’ agricultural pumps and distribution of single point connection at a cost of Rs 419 crore.
The provision of Rs 5063 crore had been made for construction of roads and bridges. A budget provision of Rs 208 crore had been made for new State Highways, Rs 200 crore for Railway overbridges and Rs 900 crore for ADB funded roads.
A provision of Rs 2,400 crore had been made for RRP Phase II (lWE areas) covering 891 kms of roads and construction of 11 bridges.
A provision of Rs 96.56 crore had been made for solar energy based drinking water supply scheme and Rs 190 crore for urban drinking water projects.
In urban development, a provision of Rs 316 crore had been made for Swachch Bharat Mission and Rs 210 crore for AMRUT Mission.
In civil aviation, Rs 10 crore had been provisioned for Regional Connectivity Scheme and Rs 23 crore for development of airstrips in Bijapur and Dantewada.
On Tourism, a provision of Rs 100 crore had been made for developing Tribal Tourism Circuit comprising 14 places in 7 districts.
In Higher Education, a State Assessment and Accreditation Council will be established with a budget provision of Rs 2 crore.
On industrial development front, new industrial areas will be established in Bhatapara, lakhanpuri (Kanker) and Mahrumkala (Rajnandgaon). A provision of Rs 42 crore made for upgradation of infrastructure in industrial areas.
On Digital Inclusion, the government is already developing BastarNet Project. All the fair price shops are being linked to digital payment mode. In the first phase, a total of five districts to go cashless.
Roads measuring 2,400 kms are coming up in Bastar and Surguja regions at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore. A total of 146 mobile towers would be established in Bastar region and 800 kms of fibre optic cable would be laid.
The Central government had accorded in-principle approval to declaring 1,700 kms of roads in Chhattisgarh as National Highways.
The Government has provisioned Rs 366 crore for infrastructure development of Naya Raipur.
Notably, Chief Minister Raman Singh clearly had also spelt out his seven-fold strategy for the all-round development of Chhattisgarh in his previous State budget 2016-17.
With an outlay of Rs 70,059 crore, the 2016-17 State Budget’s core focus was on infrastructure, social sectors and agriculture.
The seven pillars on which the Chief Minister built his strategy were — Farmers, Inclusive Development, Communications, Health, Security, Self-reliance and Capacity-building.
Notably, capital expenditure for infrastructure saw a significant jump of 18.5% in the budget compared to last year, raising its share in the budget from an already high 16.9% last year to 18.6% this year.
Social sector expenditure has increased by over 16%, with its share in the budget increasing from 37% to 40%. Agriculture Department’s budget has increased by 26%.
Notably, Chief Minister Raman Singh’s 2016-17 Annual Budget had put emphasis on fiscal prudence as in his previous budgets.
The 2016-17 budget projected a revenue surplus and a fiscal deficit of 2.88 percent which was well within the FRBM limit of 3% of GSDP.
Singh had cited RBI data to corroborate that the State’s overall debt-to-GSDP ratio is the lowest among all states and that Chhattisgarh is among the leading states in terms of the ratio to GSDP of both tax revenue and non-tax revenue.
The State also took pride in having the highest ratio of developmental expenditure to GSDP in the country and the second highest social sector expenditure to GSDP ratio, the Chief Minister had stated in his budget speech in the Chhattisgarh Assembly.
Development of road network on an unprecedented scale were announced, with plans to construct 13,000 km road length with an investment of Rs 42,000 crore over the next three years. The budget allocation for this was a massive Rs 6,101 crore, representing an increase of 56% over the preceding year, he said.
Continuing the State’s unique Public-Private Partnership strategy for expanding its rail network, the Chief Minister announced plans to develop 780 kilometres of railway lines on three arterial routes, namely Raipur-Baloda Bazar-Jharsuguda, Ambikapur-Barvadih and Dongargarh-Kawardha-Mungeli-Bilaspur-Katghora, through PPP, with equity infusion from Railways and the State Government.
The budget contained outlays for developing Raigarh and Jagdalpur (Bastar) airstrips as airports for regular flights, Singh said.
The budget also announced electricity to all hitherto unelectrified villages and all 9,000-plus unelectrified schools by March 2017, through project outlays totalling Rs 761 crore, besides a massive Rs 700 crore programme of network strengthening for the Bastar and Sarguja regions, involving the setting up of 80 sub-stations in two years.
Urban development was given a fillip with an allocation of Rs 225 crore for AMRUT Mission. Under this, sewerage system for Raipur has been approved at a cost of Rs 650 crore.
Provision has also been made for buying the Raipur-Kendri railway line land to decongest Raipur traffic and to create public transport facilities to the airport and Naya Raipur, the Chief Minister said.
Youth will be the beneficiaries of various entrepreneurship development schemes such as incubator-cum-accelerator, interest-free loans for start-ups and a venture capital fund. Mukhya Mantri Yuva Swavlamban Yojana has been launched to train and place 5,000 college students in IT and BPO sectors. A sum of Rs 144 crore have been allocated for skill development schemes, Singh had stated.