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| Rather promises ‘vision document’ in full budget | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, March 3: Promising the full budget to come up in the month of July or August as a ‘vision document’, the Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather justified the presentation of Vote on Account. However, he said that the Vote on Account sets an agenda for the Omar Abdullah government.
Rather said that in a full-fledged budget the Government would have made important announcements and come out welfare measures which, it could not do in view of the enforcement of Model Code of Conduct. He said J&K was not the only state to have presented Vote on Account as it was also done by various other states and even the Union Government in view of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. The Finance Minister was speaking to the media persons after presentation of VoA.
The Minister said that another reason for not presenting a full budget was that he had taken the charge of Finance Minister on January 13 and did not get enough time as would the preparation of a full-fledged budget demand. He reminded that preparation of budget is a lengthy process but, the present Government did not get enough time to complete that. He said another reason for presenting Vote on Account was that the Planning Commission of India had not yet finalised the plan size of the State. He said Planning Commission will have a meeting on the State Plan on March 16 and 18 after which the Chief Minister would discuss it with the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission followed by the final decision on the size of next year’s Annual Plan for J&K. He said only after the plan size was finalised it would be included in the next year’s budget.
Rather said that since the development activities could not stop and the Government had to incur non-plan expenditure so it could not wait for presenting a full-fledged budget and decided to present Vote on Account, as is done in such circumstances. He hoped that it would be passed by the House unanimously.
Replying questions, the Minister said that pensioners would also get the benefit of the 6th Pay Commission on the analogy of employees and daily wage earners. He said the Government would mobilise resources after which arrears on account of the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission would be given to the employees. He said presently there was a resource crunch and the State Government had taken up the matter with the Centre and was expecting positive response. He said the Finance Commission was also visiting the State and the Government would take up the matter of arrears with the Commission also. He said the announcement of implementation of the 6th Pay Commission was a bold decision.
Asked if the Government proposed to take any austerity measures, the Minister said that it would ensure that no wasteful expenditure was made at any cost. He assured fiscal discipline. He said the State Government had projected the next year’s plan size at Rs. 6500 crore before the Planning Commission.
In reply to a question on the financial situation he had inherited from his predecessor, Mr. Rather said that there were serious problems. He said fiscal deficit and indebtedness had increased while receipts and expenditure in the Power sector had both deteriorated. He said he was hopeful to overcome these difficulties by ensuring strict fiscal discipline.
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