AHMEDABAD: The state budget for the financial year 2022-23 was presented by the Gujarat government on Thursday. Finance Minister Kanubhai Desai has presented a budget of 2,43,965 crores.
The special thing about the budget is that no new tax burden has been imposed on the public. It was also announced that three new medical colleges at Botad, Veraval and Jam Khambhalia will be built. Currently, the process is on to start 5 medical colleges.
Finance Minister announced that there's no new tax proposed in the budget this year. He said the existing tax rates willl remain unchanged. The minister announced a complete waiver on professional tax on the middle class who earns a salary up to Rs 12,000 per month. According to the announcement 15 lakh, middle-class taxpayers will get Rs 198 crore relief through this announcement. The budget presented is Rs 668 crores plus surplus,
The finance minister said "I propose no change in existing tax rates and no new taxes are proposed in this budget. I am delighted to announce that we are announcing relief to the neo middle class who are on Monthly payroll or Daily wage earners in the public or private sector.
Under the existing structure of the Profession Tax, salary or wage who are in receipt of Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,999 per month and Rs 9,000 to Rs 11,999 per month are required to pay Rs 80 per month and Rs 150 per month respectively as Profession Tax.
The government has proposed that salary or wage up to Rs 12,000 shall be fully exempted from payment of Profession Tax. This will provide a relief of about Rs 198 crores to about 15 lakh middle-class taxpayers. As a result, the revenue of the state will be reduced by about Rs 108 Crore.
The effect of the Ukraine-Russia war was also seen in the budget as many students from the state who went to Ukraine for medical studies in the European country got trapped there. As questions were being raised against the government, it announced the opening of three new medical colleges.
As per the Government, 31 medical colleges are operating in the state for extending the scope of medical education and making more doctors available. Total 5700 MBBS seats and 2000 PG seats are available in these colleges.
To provide high-quality health care services to the citizens, a provision of Rs 106 crore under the Master Plan Project for developing ultra-modern facilities in Government Medical Colleges at Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Surat, and their modernization.