PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry government is gearing up to present the full budget for 2022-2023 in August with the State Planning Board set to meet on July 6 to finalise the draft budget. This comes three months after presenting the Vote on Accounts (Interim budget).
The meeting will be presided over by Lt Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, with Chief Minister N Rangasamy, ministers, MPs, government officials and non-official members of the board attending. The L-G will forward the finalised draft budget to the Ministry of Home Affairs for approval.
Upon approval, it will be presented in the Legislative Assembly by the CM who holds the finance portfolio.
The Puducherry government had delayed the presentation of the budget to August, so that there was clarity on revenue position, particularly with regard to the compensation of Goods and Service Tax (GST), the tenure of which ended in June.
The Vote on Accounts for Rs 3,613 crores had been presented to meet the government's expenditure for five months, ending on August 31. As Puducherry has been suffering loss in revenue after the implementation of GST, the government remains dependent on the GST compensation.
Hence, the Union Territory expected an extension of the compensation period by another five years in tune with plea by most States, including Puducherry. The base year revenue of Puducherry of Rs 1,095 in 2015-16, could not be realised even after five years of GST roll out, said PWD minister K Lakshminarayanan at the recent GST council meeting chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
"This revenue gap was bridged by compensation which accounted for 21 per cent of the UT's own revenue in 2021-22. Without it, Puducherry will have a revenue gap of around Rs 1,300 crore, impacting capital expenditure and welfare schemes." he said.
Now, with no commitment from the Centre on GST extension, Puducherry started its budget preparation with its own resources. The Union government allocated central assistance of Rs 1,729.79 crores for Puducherry in its budget. Besides, Rangasamy had written to the Prime Minister seeking additional central assistance of Rs 2000 crores and remained hopeful of the assistance.
Puducherry's excise revenue is buoyant, with an earning of Rs 1,063 crore in 2021-2022. Not only has it crossed the 1,000 crore mark, but it exceeded the targeted revenue projected in the budget.
The highest amount of Rs 778 crore was fetched through the sale of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) with Rs 151 crore from the sale of beer, Rs 63 crore as kisti for arrack and toddy shops and Rs 60.5 crore from license renewal, Deputy Commissioner (Excise) T Sudhakar said.
A senior government source said that the promotion of tourism was generating excise revenue, but GST revenue has still not risen to the level during the VAT period, but is expected to be better than the Covid-19 period.
However, the government has no option but to plan with whatever available, and augment its resources. "We are proactively working to tap most of the central funds available under Centrally sponsored schemes for welfare and infrastructure development," said a highly placed source in the government.
That will reduce our dependence on negotiated loans for infrastructure development. Besides, revenue is expected to be generated from tourism infrastructure created recently, he said . Meanwhile, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India (MORTH) will be funding the flyover from Rajiv Gandhi Statue to Indira Gandhi statue, a major project in Puducherry.