NT NETWORK
PANAJI
The government on Monday presented a revenue surplus budget of Rs 202.48 crore for the financial year 2017-18 with the gross budget size estimated at Rs 16,027.01 crore as against Rs 14,694.17 crore for the fiscal year 2016-17 showing an increase of 9.07 per cent.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who also holds the finance portfolio, presenting the annual financial statement in the state legislative assembly, said the government proposes a capital outlay of Rs 4,286.25 crore for the current fiscal as against Rs 3,112.56 crore for the last financial year, showing an increase of 37.70 per cent.
“I propose to complete the ongoing major infrastructure capital works, during the current fiscal,” he added.
Stating that the advanced gross state domestic product estimate at current prices for the fiscal year 2017-18 is Rs 55,285 crore, thereby reflecting a growth rate of approximately 11 per cent, the Chief Minister said the government has not compromised on implementation of any welfare scheme or on the infrastructure while making the budget provisions, but still controlled the increase in revenue expenditure at bare minimum by arresting wastages.
The annual financial statement maintains that total revenue receipts in 2017-18 are estimated to rise by 8.7 per cent from Rs 8,757 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 9,522 crore. “The state’s own tax revenue is estimated to grow at a lesser rate, by 7.9 per cent, from Rs 4,445 crore to Rs 4,800 crore during the period,” it added, pointing out, “The share in central taxes is going to rise by about Rs 250 crore during the period.”
The budgetary provision of the public works department has witnessed a massive hike by almost 40 per cent, with total allocation of Rs 1982.8259 crore with Rs 386 crore for maintenance and new water supply schemes, Rs 588 crore for roads and Rs 15.6 crore for toilets under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
The budgetary speech further maintained that the government would encourage digital payment and make it financially rewarding, for which an appropriate policy would be formulated in order to discourage cash transactions.
Parrikar, who began his speech with the lines ‘Dive lagle re dive lagle, tamachya talashi dive lagle’ (Lamps have been lighted at the very source of darkness), from the poetry of the noted Goan poet Shankar Ramani, in his 90-minute address said that with the disbanding of the Planning Commission at the national level, the government proposes to close the State Planning Board from the forthcoming financial year.
“An alternative mechanism will be announced in due course of time,” he informed.
As a revenue generation measure, the budget has revised the onshore as well as off-shore casino fees towards renewal of their licences and annual recurring fees. The fees for transfer of licences for onshore casinos has been fixed at Rs 10 crore, while those for offshore casinos is Rs 20 crore.
The budget has also proposed to rationalise a few of the fees charged for various acts performed under Civil Registration Code enforced in the state, including stamp duty and registration fees.
The annual financial statement further proposes to marginally enhance the excise duty on beer manufactured locally or imported from outside, while marginally reduce the export fee on beer to 50 paise per bulk litre.
The budget also proposes to rationalise levy on the high-end vehicles, especially as their purchasers were found to evade the same by registering their vehicles in other states, which have much lower incidence of tax, thereby causing loss to the state exchequer.
Maintaining that the government proposes to hike the current growth of agricultural sector in the state from the current 3 per cent to 6 per cent, thereby making Goa completely self-sustainable and non-dependable in respect of foodgrain, milk, vegetables and all other agricultural products, the Chief Minister said that his government wants to revolutionise the agricultural sector with greater emphasis on horticulture crops and encouraging floriculture and vegetable farming. The state budget also proposed to enhance the assured price for sugarcane to Rs 3,000 per tonne from the present Rs 2,500 per tonne, while encouraging farmers to undertake piggery business under Varah Palan Scheme, with provision of 60 per cent to 70 per cent subsidy, as also support women, youth and self-help groups to undertake value-added products of fisheries by providing all necessary support.
Touching upon the department of education, the Chief Minister said that while providing infrastructure to the educational sector, the government also proposes to revamp the entire Goan education system to align with the international benchmarks, and further bridge the academia-industry gap through formal collaboration between the both. “I intend to create additional facilities, such as swimming pool, badminton and basketball courts, gymnasium etc at existing sports complex at Bambolim, which will be opened up to the students from Cujira Complex,” he added.
Parrikar, who is also the Education Minister, stated that a scheme of education for children with special needs will be revised to allow more comprehensive and robust approach to meet the educational needs of children with various disabilities, as also will strengthen Sanjay Centre for Special Education in imparting education to more than 850 special students through six schools/centres, catering to educational needs of the impaired students, besides imparting vocational training to make them self-dependent.
It was further informed that the entire backlog of past two years of laptops to be distributed to the higher secondary students under the Cyberage Scheme would be cleared during this financial year, for which a provision of Rs 50 crore has been made.
The Chief Minister also announced the plan to provided total budgetary outlay of Rs 351.95 crore under municipal administration, with provision of grant of Rs 5 crore for municipal councils of Margao, Mormugao, Ponda, Mapusa and Curchorem and Rs 3 crore and Rs 2 crore for other municipalities as per their grading.
“Besides these regular grants, I propose to provide special grants of Rs 20 crore each for Mapusa and Curchorem municipalities and Rs 10 crore to Bicholim municipal council for special infrastructure projects,” he added.
The budget speech of the Chief Minister also maintained that the Goa State Co-operative Bank, which is the apex bank, is in equally bad shape.
“The government intends to take steps for adequate infusion of capital into this bank, for which preliminary talks have been held with Reserve Bank of India and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development,” Parrikar stated, adding that the required statutory amendments would be carried out to ensure that the bank is placed under professional care and whatever bitter medicine required shall be administered to prevent further deterioration of its health.
“My government will draw a vision plan for each and every individual department, with a roadmap to achieve this vision,” Parrikar maintained, pointing out that while doing so, the government would emphasise on ‘minimum government and maximum governance’ to provide services to the people, to the best of their satisfaction.