91.43-crore deficit Budget for Madhya Pradesh
A bag full of surprises: Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Raghavji arrives at the Vidhan Sabha in Bhopal to present the State Budget on Wednesday. Finance Minister Raghavji on Wednesday presented in the State Assembly the Madhya Pradesh Budget for 2008-09 with a budgetary deficit of Rs.91.43 crore. The Minister announced a reduction in entry tax on raw material inputs for textile industry and removal of entry tax on sponge iron and iron scrap for induction furnace. He also announced a reduction in VAT on diesel from 26 per cent to 25 per cent. Mr. Raghavji went on to announce pension and medical facilities to those detained under the dreaded MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) during the infamous Emergency. Those who served six months or more behind bars would get Rs.6,000 per month as "Loknayak Jayaprakash Samman Nidhi' (monthly pension) while there would be a pension of Rs.3,000 for those jailed for more than three months but less than six months. One of the major budgetary announcements was that wheat would be available to each BPL family at the rate of Rs.3 per kg and rice at Rs.4.50 per kg . The budget for 2008-09 has a revenue surplus of Rs.2839.78 crore and the fiscal deficit for year is estimated at Rs.4741.00 crore, which is 3 per cent of the GSDP. The Finance Minister told media persons later that one of the important goals was to focus attention on gender budgeting to ensure equality for women, economic empowerment and women's participation in developmental schemes covered by 21 State departments. The Budget provides Rs.1371.47 crore for Energy, Rs.1656 crore for construction of roads and Rs.484 crore for road maintenance. The Finance Minister incorporated the Chief Minister's recent announcements at a Kisan Mahapanchayat here and told the House that there would be budgetary provision for a bonus of Rs.100 per quintal of wheat procured by government agencies for the public distribution system, reduction in rate of interest from 7 per cent to 5 per cent on short-term agriculture loans, relief in payment of old outstanding electricity bills, and increase in the rate of grant from 10 per cent to 30 per cent on drip/sprinkler irrigation. Mr. Raghavji said that additional irrigation capacity for 4.80 lakh hectare had been created in last four-year period and for the next fiscal, there would be a provision of Rs.1815.57 crore for irrigation purpose. He said colleges of excellence would be set up in each of the 38 backward districts. He also told the House that 254 girls' hostels would be constructed and 448 middle schools would be upgraded to the high school level. The Government would also be launching several scholarships for students belonging to the weaker sections, he added. The Finance Minister told the House that there was provision of Rs.566.88 crore (State share) for creation of employment in rural areas, Rs.100 crore for the District Poverty Initiative Programme Phase-II and Rs.93.23 crore for Rural Livelihood Project. He said the State employees would get dearness allowance and dearness relief at the rate of 4 per cent from this coming April 1 onward.