Jammu, Mar 10: Asserting the State's next year's plan outlay of Rs 6600 crore is a realistic projection based on the pattern adopted by Planning Commission for scheme of financing the current year's annual plan outlay, the Minister for Finance, A R Rather today urged the need for sustained measures to improve the State's burgeoning fiscal deficit, adding that it is the most concerning grey area.
 In his two hour extensive reply to the general discussion on Budget, presented by him on March 7, 2011 in the Legislative Assembly, Rather said though our tax revenue has improved considerably by introducing various reformative measures, a lot more is to be done to improve our non tax revenues.
 He said the state has even won applauds from the Planning Commission for generating highest ever tax revenue of Rs 3643 crore during the last year, adding that the State  has set a tax revenue target of Rs 4,183 crore during next fiscal marking, an increase of around 20 per cent.
 He said next year's non-tax revenue collections have been estimated at Rs 1620 crore, up by Rs 313 crore over current financial year's budget estimates of Rs 1307 crore.
 He said the non-plan expenditure on salaries of the government employees inclusive of the provision for the two DA instalments which will become payable during the next fiscal is estimated at Rs 11,360 crore which would be ` Rs 3,246 crore more than the current year’s Revised Estimates (RE) of Rs 8,114 crore.
 The revenue component of the Plan Outlay works out to Rs`1,178 crore which is primarily on account of salaries of the staff borne on the Plan. In addition to this, the estimated requirement of grants-in-aid for the autonomous bodies and institutions has been worked out at Rs 727 crore as against ` Rs 482 crore estimated in the Budgetary Estimates (BE) of the current fiscal.
 Rather said the expenditure on pensions and retirement benefits to the employees is estimated at Rs 2,651 crore during the next fiscal as against RE of ` Rs 2,031 crore in the current fiscal.
 Likewise, he said the expenditure on payment of interest is estimated at Rs 2,363 crore during the next fiscal as against Rs 2,251 crore worked out in RE of the current fiscal. The expenditure on account of cost of purchase of electrical energy is projected at Rs 2,400 crore as against the current year’s BE of Rs 2,050 crore and RE of Rs 2,324 crore, Rather added.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT
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