The Hindu : Other States / Uttar Pradesh News : No new taxes in deficit U.P. Budget

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Thursday, Feb 24, 2005

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No new taxes in deficit U.P. Budget

Photo: Subir Roy

The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, who also holds the Finance portfolio, presenting the State Budget in Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday in Lucknow.

LUCKNOW, FEB. 23. Introducing an innovative `Gender Budgeting' system, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, who also holds the Finance portfolio, today presented a Rs 674.17- crore net deficit budget proposals for the financial year 2005-06 without any fresh taxes.

Delivering his budgetary speech in the U.P. Assembly, Mr Yadav said certain fiscal decisions of the Government were expected to earn additional revenue of Rs 1,250 crore, which would improve the State's financial health.

``Fiscal 2005-06 has been declared as a `year of completing old unfinished works','' he added.

Mr Yadav said the process of `gender budgeting' had been initiated under which one-third of beneficiary funds would be spend towards emancipation of women living Below Poverty Line (BPL).

However, the State Government expressed concern over the rising debt burden, which crossed 50 per cent mark of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). The debt was expected to touch Rs 1,29,154.91 crore in the next fiscal.

The State Government has proposed allocation of Rs 72 crore for development of naxal- infested areas of U.P., while the old `Bhumi Sena', earlier launched in 1990, would be relaunched in 27 districts.

The Government also proposes to purchase 1,150 new buses through U.P. Road Transport Corporation in the next financial year.

Later at a news conference, the CM announced that the within next six months all the roads would be repaired so that vehicles could ply at the speed of 100 km per hour.

``Our effort is to convert U.P. into a developed state by the year 2020,'' he said.

However, the Chief Minister admitted in the Vidhan Sabha that the rate of development in U.P. was merely 5.9 per cent against the national average of over 8 per cent.

The total expense on salaries, pension and interest was expected around 64.4 per cent of the total expenditure.

A Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Scholarship scheme has also been proposed to grant a stipend of Rs 1,000 to 200 meritorious students of MCA, MBA, MBBS, IITs and IIMs.

The Government also announced insurance schemes of Rs one lakh for five lakh rickshaw pullers in the State.

The budgetary estimates are to the tune of Rs 69,295.19 crore, while total receipts amount to Rs 67,494 crore.

The rural outlay is Rs 71.3 per cent and outlay for priority sector is 83 per cent.

According to the budgetary estimates the revenue deficit of the State during 2005-2006 is expected to be Rs 5403.47 crore, while the fiscal defict Rs 13,532.58 crore.

Anti-people: Opposition

Opposition parties slammed the Samajwadi Party-led Government for presenting an ``anti-people budget.''

The BJP State unit president, Kesharinath Tripathi, said the Government had done nothing to end the plight of unemployed or the labour class. ``It is the same Government which had promised unemployment allowance,'' he maintained.

Mr Tripathi also slammed the State Government for providing various sops to the people of Saifai -- the home-town of Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav -- and Rampur -- the constituency of the senior State minister, Mohammed Azam Khan. ``It seems to be the annual budget of Saifai and Rampur and not U.P.,'' he lamented.

The former Assembly Speaker said the effort by the State Government to provide facilities to rickshaw-pullers from the minority community only were not in a healthy spirit. ``Dividing people on religious lines is a shameful act,'' he added.

The U.P. State Congress president, Salman Khurshid, also reacted sharply to the budget, saying ``It is against the interests of farmers and the common man...as such it is a hollow statement by the Government.'' UNI

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