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No fresh taxes in Punjab budget

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, JUNE 21. The Punjab Finance Minister, Lal Singh, today presented the annual budget for 2004-05 with a Plan size of 3503.81 crores, an increase of 24.16 per cent over last year. While it has a resource gap of Rs 505.59 crores, no new taxes have been imposed.

In his third budget speech in a row, Mr. Lal Singh listed various steps through which the State Government proposes to bring down the Revenue deficit to Rs 3442.46 crores which was 3.82 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) as compared to 4.36 per cent last year and 5.13 per cent.

He said the budget was being presented for a three-year perspective for the sake of transparency, consistency and continuity. "This three-year rolling budget is contained in the medium Term Fiscal Reforms Programme (MTFRP) of the State Government,'' he said and added that the action taken report on the budget proposals of the previous year was included in the Annual Financial Statement, which had also been placed before the House.

Later, explaining the budget at a press conference, Mr. Lal Singh said that by putting in place various mechanisms to check pilferage in tax collection, the Government would be able to plug the resource gap in the plan outlay. He stressed that the Government would continue with its programme of curtailing non-productive expenditure. Listing the achievements in stemming the economic rot, Mr. Lal Singh disclosed that the GSDP during the last fiscal had exhibited a growth rate of 1.80 per cent as compared to 1.39 per cent over the previous annual. While the primary sector, continued to be stagnant, there was turn around in the growth in the secondary and tertiary sectors. The per capita income showed a marginal increase of 0.04 percent as compared to 2.40 percent the previous year.

Mr. Lal Singh said that the budget would remain focused on corrective measures to restore financial health and improve quality of public expenditure, which in turn would also have on priority to bring about diversification of agriculture, revival of the industrial sector and employment generation.

The Minister informed the House about the scheme forwarded to the Central Government for approval, which would prevent credit advanced in the food account being used for other budgetary purposes. Meanwhile, the department for small savings managed to increase its collections to Rs 3376 crore in 2003-04 as compared to Rs 2627 crore the previous year. For the ongoing year, Rs 4100 crore has been set as the target.

In what could be described as a development plan rather than budgetary estimates, the State Government would proceed with projects for urban renewal, devolution of funds and functions to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). It would also emphasise on development of "world class infrastructure'', power sector reforms and substantial improvement in the quality and delivery of the education and health services.

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