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No new taxes in Punjab budget

No new taxes: Punjab Finance Minister Upinderjit Kaur on her way to present the annual budget in the Punjab Assembly in Chandigarh on Monday.

CHANDIGARH: Punjab's first woman Finance Minister Upinderjit Kaur proposed no new taxes while presenting the last budget of the Akali Dal-BJP alliance government in the State Assembly here on Monday. While the size of the Annual Plan is Rs.11,500 crore, the revenue deficit has been pegged at Rs.3378.99 crore, which is 1.33 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

Dr. Kaur had assumed charge last year after the then Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, who is a nephew of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, was expelled from the party.

Talking to reporters later on Monday, the Finance Minister said that while her budget had not set any “lofty and unachievable targets”, it marked the beginning of a “silent revolution” which ultimately would bring about the changes needed to put Punjab back in the No. One position at the national level.

Dr. Kaur quoted the Chief Minister to assert the present government's position in favour of continuing with the subsidies. She said fiscal consolidation should not deprive farmers, weaker sections of society, small industrialists and traders, senior citizens, “daughters of Punjab”, sportspersons, employees and pensioners of their legitimate rights on the resources of the State. The aims of fiscal consolidation and financial stability were served better by stimulating and accelerating the growth of the economy rather than cutting down the welfare expenditure of the State.

She expressed satisfaction over the functioning of the economy where parameters indicated that Punjab is among the fastest growing States in the country. The primary sector in 2008-09 grew at 2.14 per cent against the national level of 0.04 per cent. The manufacturing sector has shown a growth of 11.99 per cent against the national average of 8.06 per cent, while services sector promises to grow at 9.41 per cent. The per capita income at current prices is estimated to increase from Rs.62,153 in 2009-10 to Rs.70,072 in 2010-11 registering a 12.74 percent increase.

Quoting from revised estimates, she said that the growth rate of the State's own tax revenue, which was only 0.31 per cent in 2006-07, would reach 44.49 per cent in 2010-11. The State's total outstanding debt which was only Rs.879 crore (17.49% of GSDP) at the end of 1980-81 was expected to climb to Rs.77,585 crore (30.43% of GSDP) at the end of 2011-12. However, she expressed satisfaction that the debt-GSDP ratio had begun to improve over the past couple of years, which reflected a dynamic economy as well as prudent fiscal management

With an eye on the Assembly elections that are due in about 11 months now, Dr. Kaur in her budgetary speech made a series of announcements including free health care facilities to all Below Poverty Line (BPL) families, free education for girls up to Class XII in the government-run schools and enhanced amount under the ‘Shagun scheme' from Rs.15,000 to Rs.30,000 to be gifted at the marriage of a Scheduled Caste girl. The scope of the Shagun scheme has been broadened to include girls from Backward Classes and other weaker sections of society. It already includes Christian girls.

The Minister said an allocation of Rs.1,648 crore had been made to fund various programmes aimed at women's empowerment. To uplift the social status of girls belonging to BPL families and to reduce school drop-out rate, a budgetary allocation of Rs.16.50 crore was made for the new “Beba Nanaki Ladli Beti Kalyan Scheme” through which Rs.15,000 would be gifted at the birth of a girl child. The amount would be invested in the name of the child with the Life Insurance Corporation of India and enhanced payments shall be made available to the girl at various stages of her life. While the outlay for social security has been increased by 24 per cent to Rs.924 crore, Dr. Kaur earmarked Rs.142 crore for Sports and Youth services. Of this, Rs.22 crore shall be out of budgetary sources, for the construction and upgrading six hockey stadiums, seven multipurpose stadiums and setting up a centre of excellence in sports at Jalandhar.

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