The Hindu : New Delhi News : A populist budget for Chhattisgarh

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Sunday, Feb 24, 2008
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A populist budget for Chhattisgarh

Aarti Dhar

Raman Singh rolls out sops with an eye on Assembly polls

Provision of 771 crore for Food Security Scheme in which 34 lakh families get rice at Rs.3 per kg
Faced with increasing naxalite menace, budgetary allocation for Police Dept. hiked by 103 per cent

NEW DELHI: With Chhattisgarh going to the polls before the year-end, Chief Minister Raman Singh on Saturday presented a populist budget in the State Assembly in Raipur with a huge provision for his government’s recently launched Food Security Scheme.

The Government has made a special provision of Rs.771 crore for the Food Security Scheme under which 34 lakh families get rice at Rs.3 per kg. The other sops announced include a complete waiver of professional tax for the salaried employees, reduction of stamp duty by 2 per cent for immovable property in the name of women, rationalisation of the tax structure on a variety of items of mass consumption and reduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) on battery-operated vehicles from 12.5 per cent to 4 per cent.

Faced with the problem of increasing naxalite activities, the budgetary allocation for the Police Department has been increased by 103 per cent as compared to that of 2003-04 allocation.

Presenting the budget estimates amounting to Rs.18,286 crore for 2008-09, the Chief Minister – who also holds the Finance portfolio – called for “inclusive growth” and emphasised his government’s commitment to pursuing the “Millennium Development Goals” to reduce poverty, improve education and health status and ensure safe drinking water.

Pointing out that gender budgeting had been introduced for the first time, Mr. Singh said the Food Security Scheme was an important step towards improving the prevailing level of malnutrition and anaemia among children and pregnant women.

With an estimated growth of 12 per cent in tax and 13 per cent in non-tax revenue, it is the third revenue-surplus (Rs.1,778 crore) budget. The budgetary estimate of Rs.18,286 crore is 10 per cent higher than the current year’s revised estimates of Rs.16,687 crore.

The net budget deficit stands at Rs.54 crore and taking into account the cumulative deficits, the budget is estimated at Rs.820 crore. The gross fiscal deficit is estimated at Rs.1,921 crore which is 3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product and within the target set under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.

With a sharp 30 per cent increase in Plan expenditure, the Plan outlay estimated at Rs.10,155 crore is 56 per cent of the total budget outlay. Similarly, the outlay on capital expenditure of Rs.3,903 crore is 10 per cent higher than the current year’s. The non-Plan expenditure has been pegged at 44 per cent of the total expenditure which is 5 per cent lower than the current year. The budget allocates 35 per cent of the total expenditure for tribal sub-plan and 12 per cent for the scheduled caste sub-Plan.

The outlay of Rs.5,749 crore earmarked for the social sector is 31 per cent higher than the current year and constitutes 43 per cent of the total expenditure, including 12 per cent for education, 4 per cent for health, 4 per cent for food security, 7 per cent for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes welfare and 3 per cent for drinking water.

There is a special focus on the welfare of SC/ST families especially the primitive tribal groups. A new scheme for providing houses to all such tribal group families at a cost of Rs.15 crore is one of the highlights of the budget.

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