CHANDIGARH: While no fresh taxes have been proposed, VAT on natural gas used by industry has been reduced from 12.5 per cent to 6 per cent in the record Rs 1,15,198.29 crore Haryana Budget for fiscal 2018-19, presented by the Finance Minister, Capt Abhimanyu, to the State Assembly, today.
Unfolding the contents of his fourth consecutive and steeped-in-social-welfare Budget, Abhimanyu said in consonance with the theme of “Haryana Ek Haryanvi Ek”, it aimed to usher in a new era of balanced growth where no one is left out of the state’s journey of all-round development and prosperity. The Budget seeks to combine fiscal prudence with sagacious use of resources to optimize their effect.
Marked by some firsts like aligning the allocations with Sustainable Development Goals, the Budget seeks to take the social welfare route to usher in an era of transformation and make tangible improvement in the quality of life both in urban as well as rural areas.
The Budget represents an increase of 12.6 per cent over the Swaran Jayanti Year Budget of Rs 1,02,329.35 crore last year, and 14.4 per cent over RE 2017-18 of Rs 1,00,739.38 crore. The Budget outlay comprises 26.1 per cent as capital expenditure of Rs 30,012 crore, and 73.9 per cent as revenue expenditure of Rs 85,187 crore.
Riding the crest of better realization of both tax and non-tax receipts, the Finance Minister has estimated revenue receipts at Rs 76,933.02 crore, including the state’s own tax receipt of Rs 49,131.74 crore, and non tax-revenue of Rs. 11,302.66 crore.
The major sources of tax revenue are GST Rs. 23,760 crore, VAT Rs. 11,440.00 crore, Excise Duty Rs 6,000 crore and Stamp and Registration Rs 4,500 crore. The non-tax receipts include, among others, EDC Rs 4,000 crore, Transport – Rs 2,000 crore and Mines Rs 800 crore.
Besides, the government can borrow up to three per cent of its GSDP. Further grant-in-aid from the Government of India is another major source of funding in the current fiscal, Abhimanyu added.
Recapitulating the share of budgetary allocations to different sectors in fiscal 2018-19, he said these had been hiked in most cases. About 28.7 per cent of the total budget has been allocated to economic services like agriculture and allied, irrigation and rural electrification subsidy 12.22 per cent, power 5.87 per cent, transport, civil aviation, road and bridges 4.73 per cent, rural development and panchayats 3.76 per cent and others 2.12 per cent.
While 33.89 per cent is allocated to social services comprising education 12.96 per cent, social welfare 7.46 per cent, health and family welfare 4.14 per cent, public health engineering 3.20 per cent and others 6.13 per cent, general services get 14.4 per cent share. These include administrative services 4.79 per cent, pension 7.21 per cent and others 2.40 per cent. Also, 23.01 per cent has been allocated for repayment of debt that is principal 10.82 per cent and interest 12.19 per cent.
Knowing full well that the route to jobs is paved with skills, the Finance Minister has increased the outlay for the Skill Development and Industrial Training Department in 2018-19 to Rs 657.94 crore, which is 43.43 per cent over and above Rs 458.71 crore provided in 2017-18.
Haryana is one of the few states that have prepared their own Vision 2030 Document, based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the assistance of UNDP. In its maiden effort, the state government has attempted to align the budget allocation with SDGs and evolve a mechanism to monitor the implementation through a comprehensive list of global as well as national indicators. Out of total budget of Rs 1.15 lakh crore, an amount of Rs 44,911.16 crore has been allocated to schemes which lead to the attainment of 15 SDGs in due course of time, he added.