The State Administrative Council headed by governor Satya Pal Malik approved on Saturday Rs 88,911 crore budget for 2019-2020. The financial plan focuses on infrastructure development, good governance and empowerment of local self- government institutions.
BUDGET FIGURES
The size of the budget for next fiscal is Rs 88,911 crore, which is 10.07 percent more than the last budget presented by the PDP-BJP government in January this year.
According to figures, Rs 58842 is the revenue expenditure component of the budget and Rs 30469 is capital expenditure part. The revenue expenditure component is two times more than the capital expenditure, meaning thereby that 66 percent of total expenditure is non-developmental and about 34 percent is for creation of capital assets.
The total receipts for next fiscal are estimated to be Rs 84751 crore, leaving an unfunded gap of Rs 4340 crore.
MAIN FEATURES
Principal secretary finance, Navin K Choudhary gave a detailed presentation to the SAC on the revised estimates for ongoing fiscal and budget estimates for next fiscal and other key features of the budget.
The SAC was informed that the focus of the budget 2019-20 is to give a big push to tangible developmental initiatives with Rs 30469 crore earmarked for building public and social infrastructure, in addition to Rs 3631 crore already provided under languishing projects programme.
An official spokesman said the SAC observed that investment in infrastructure is the “growth driver for economy and has a cascading impact on all sectors including employment generation and socio-economic development”.
Chief secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said the budget is “structured around three fundamental objectives of building infrastructure, building institutions and building systems under the government’s overarching mission for delivering development and mission on good governance”.
He said the budget is aimed at “driving the state’s economic growth through multifarious initiatives with thrust on substantive developmental and welfare measures”.
“The investment in key developmental and social sectors has been enhanced substantively to leave a visible impact on the ground,” he said.
In the beginning, the budget document gives details about funding for local self-government institutions.
“The biggest development during the last six months of governor’s rule has been successful conduct of panchayat and municipal polls,” the CS said.
The panchayat and municipal bodies for the first time are likely to receive considerable funds, the budget document reads.
“Rs 2573 crore are expected to flow to panchayati raj institutions and Rs 1030 crore to urban local bodies during next 15 months. Every panchayat will get funds ranging from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1 crore depending on its area and population to transform the developmental activities at the grassroots level,” reads the document.
The budget focuses on infrastructure building in different sectors including Roads and Buildings, Health, Education, Power, PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control.
It proposes to enhance annual allocation for macadamization of roads from Rs 100 crore to Rs 400 crore in 2019-20.
Under the budget, Rs 1000 crore has been proposed for completion of languishing connectivity projects in road sector.
The funding for health sector is also one of the highlights of the budget as Rs 350 crore has been kept for all under-construction buildings of medical colleges, district/sub-district hospitals, PHCs.
In education sector, the budget proposes Rs 250 crore for upgradation of infrastructure in existing and new degree colleges; Rs 100 crore for providing benches and desks for students in primary and middle schools andRs 45 crore for providing assured electricity, drinking water supply to schools.
It also proposes Rs 1000 crore for regularisation of RRTs and SSA teachers.
The budget seeks Rs 1500 crorefor augmenting the drinking water supply across the state. The urban sector is one of the most priority areas in the budget unveiled by the governor’s administration.
It talks about creation of metropolitan authorities for Srinagar and Jammu cities.
“To promote planned expansion of the twin capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar, metropolitan authorities will be created for which an initial provision of Rs 100 crore has been made. This will be supplemented by funding available under smart cities and institutional borrowing,” the document states.
The budget earmarks massive funding for construction of drainage and sewerage, STPs and solid waste disposal plants across the state.
“An allocation of Rs 500 crore towards construction of drainage and sewerage, STPs and solid waste disposal plants across the state is proposed in the balance part of the current year and during next financial year,” reads the document.
The infrastructure building in sports sector is also one of the key announcements in the budget as Rs 350 crore has been allocated for completing all ongoing works of stadiums and playfields.
Apart from proposing massive funding for sports infrastructure, Rs five crore has been provided in the budget to promote youth exchange programmes.
The budget document states that Rs 10 crore in current fiscal and Rs 25 crore in next fiscal would be provided to the State Roads Transport Corporation for augmenting its fleet.
It also proposes to provide Rs 25 crore subsidy to private sector for purchasing 500 quality buses.
The budget also proposes to provide Rs one crore each for twin aspirational districts of North Kashmir.
Kupwara and Baramulla were declared as aspirational districts by the government of India due to their backwardness.