Chief minister to make presentation on March 6
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Chief minister Manohar Parrikar will present the state budget 2014-15 on March 6 with major thrust on additional resource mobilization through taxes but without hurting the voters ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The five day budget session which will be BJP government’s third budget, begins March 3 with the speech by Goa governor B V Wanchoo. Parrikar had presented Rs 10,053.24 crore budget for the financial year 2013-14.
Speaking to media persons, Parrikar said that the budget will be presented on March 6. He said that the budget preparatory meetings are on.
This year too, the state government will have to do a fine balancing act considering that there would be a shortfall of around Rs 900 crore mining revenue, owing to continuation of the mining ban.
Secretariat official confirmed that the government will continue with the social welfare schemes announced and implemented in the last two years as part of its election promises –especially its two flagship schemes Laadli Laxmi, Griha Aaadhar and existing schemes such as Dayanand Social Security Scheme (DSS).
“For this the state will have to go for additional resource mobilization. The government has already tightened the screws on value added tax collection and given targets to departments such as excise and tourism that will bring in revenue,” an official said.
Teams of financial experts are busy trying to work out modalities of additional resource mobilization, he said.
The state is currently over Rs 900 crore short on revenue due to mining and Rs 150 crore per month due to abolition of VAT on petrol.
For this budget, the state is expecting to bring down VAT (value added tax) on aviation turbine fuel from 12 to 5 per cent.
The tax was reduced from 22 to 12 per cent during the last budget.
The budget plans to boost agriculture by continuing support to this sector although its schemes such as Kisan card have not got desired response.
The budget plans to boost agriculture by continuing support to this sector although its schemes such as Kisan card have not got desired response
