PUDUCHERRY: A vote on account (interim budget) to meet the expenditure of the Puducherry government for the first three to four months of fiscal 2022-2023 is likely to be presented by Chief Minister N Rangasamy (holding the finance portfolio) in the Puducherry Legislative Assembly on March 30, highly placed sources said. As in the past few years since 2011, the full-fledged budget will be presented later, after getting approval from the Centre.
With the financial year drawing to a close on March 31, the vote on account needs to be passed before that and hence three dates of March 28, 30 and 31 are being considered for tabling and passing it, said Speaker Embalam R Selvam. One of the dates will be decided by the council of ministers and sent to the Lt Governor for approval, said Selvam. The Legislative Assembly session is likely to begin with the address of Lt Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, being the first session of the year.
The full budget will be later tabled in June or July, sources in the government said.
With the NDA government of the AINRC and BJP led by N Rangasamy assuming office and the NDA projecting a double engine growth for Puducherry, it was expected that in 2022-2023, a full-fledged budget will be presented before the start of the new fiscal year. A delay of three to four months in the presentation and passing of the budget leads to delay in utilisation of the budgetary allocation and implementation of schemes and projects.
However, the expenditure for 2021-2022 being around Rs 10,000 crores exceeds the budgetary outlay of Rs 9924.41 crores for 2021-2022 presented by the Chief Minister, sources in government said. This would mean that Puducherry can go for a higher outlay or at least the same as the amount spent in 2021-2022. Though the central assistance as per the central budget is known to be Rs 1729 crores, yet the Puducherry government could not prepare a draft budget without knowing the status of GST compensation. There is no clarity on GST compensation after July.
Moreover, Chief Minister N Rangasamy has sought an additional central assistance of Rs 2000 crores for offsetting the loss of revenue due to reduction of VAT on petrol, diesel as well as GST compensation and cent percent financing of a centrally sponsored scheme, sources said. If there is no assurance of GST compensation to bridge the revenue gap, the Centre may aid with additional assistance or the Puducherry government will need to find alternate sources of revenue or go for higher market borrowings, for which the Centre will have to give concurrence.
Against this backdrop, Chief Minister N Rangasamy is planning to go to New Delhi next week and meet the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister and discuss matters with them. Thereafter, the draft budget will be prepared and sent to the Centre for approval to be presented in the Legislative Assembly.