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| Coalition's last Budget: Rather's bid to enhance coalition's electoral prospects | | Sops for Youth, Farmers, Panchayats, Industry | | Kunal Shrivatsa
JAMMU, Feb 13: With an eye on upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, the Minister for Finance Abdul Rahim Rather today presented a tax free budget in the State Assembly for the year 2014-15 which had focus on sops for youth, panchayats and farmers besides offering some other initiatives.
The sixth and last budget of the coalition government shows a total expenditure of Rs 43543 crore with a capital component of Rs 10595 crore. The budget shows own estimated tax revenue of Rs 7496 crore and share of central taxes upto Rs 5191 crore and central non-plan grant of Rs 2096 crore. The Budget expects the revenue expenditure to touch Rs 32948 crore.
In his budget speech which lasted for about two hours, Rather said that despite limited financial resources and multiple problems confronting the state, every possible effort has been made to provide succor to various sections of the society.
"Next year's size of annual plan would be of order of Rs 11300 crore with a PMRP component of Rs 600 crore," Rather said.
"The Government has improved the tax and VAT remittance in the State resulting in more revenue to the Government. He said VAT remittance in the State during last five years has increased from Rs 1836 crore to estimated Rs 4800 crore for the current fiscal which shows a cumulative increase of 161%.
He said the total revenues (Tax and Non-Tax) have increased significantly from Rs 2683 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 6700 crore for the current year with an annual increase of 30%. He said the non-tax revenue which stood at Rs 837 crore during 2008-09 has increased to Rs 2160 crore during last year.
Later, addressing media persons outside Assembly Secretariat, Rather said that tax revenue in the State has witnessed 33% increase during the span of last five years of the present coalition Government.
He said the tax revenue which was just Rs 2600 crore in 2009 is expected to increase to Rs 7500 crore during the next fiscal.
Rather said this steep increase in tax revenue, without levying new taxes has been possible due to the better tax management and plugging of loopholes in tax collection system, adding that he has been convening periodic review meetings of the department under his charge regularly to assess performance and ensure better budget management and fiscal discipline.
He said, "In the last five years, the coalition government did not levy any tax burden on the people notwithstanding economic inflation at the national level," adding that the state was well ahead to centre in minimizing its fiscal deficit as per the assigned targets in this regard.
The Finance Minister said economic growth rate of the State is also better as compared to national figures, adding that the Empowered Committee of the State Finance Ministers has appreciated the State for bringing improvements in Budget management and fiscal discipline.
Briefing about the tax concessions given to various sectors, Rather said that the agriculture sector has been made more or less tax free. He said both entry tax and toll tax on fertilizers, fungicides and weedicides, which are considered important agriculture inputs, have been exempted, adding that for the first time horticulture sector especially apple, pear, cherry are being brought under the ambit of Insurance cover concession granted to Industry, trade and tourism sectors shall continue for the next fiscal, he said an amount of Rs 3.50 crore has been earmarked for Women Development Corporation to set-up 100 more Self Help Groups (SHG) comprising 44,000 women which is expected to go a long way in upgrading the living standard of women folk. He said a provision of Rs 3 crore has been made in the Budget for marriage of orphan girls belonging to BPL families.
He said the tourism incentive package which was expiring on December, 31, 2014 shall be extended upto March 2015 whereas stamp duty exemption on KCC has been increased from Rs 1.50 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. This concession shall also be available to the Artisan Credit Cards, he added.
Rather said the VAT remission for industry shall continue for another year whereas cashless system of VAT remission on purchase of raw material made from SICOP shall be adopted from the next year. Similarly, the Hotel tariff tax exemption shall continue up to March 2015. |
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