Ranchi, March 3: Aiming at fuelling growth, the Jharkhand government Thursday unveiled a Rs 1.01-lakh crore budget for the 2022-23 fiscal, with higher spending on sectors like health and infrastructure.
The budget also proposed a massive 59 per cent jump in capital expenditure to Rs 24,827.70 crore.
“…Capital expenditure is essential for the development of the state and in view of this, there is a proposal to increase the capital expenditure by 59 per cent,” Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon said in the assembly while presenting the budget.
Revenue expenditure is pegged at Rs 76,273.30 crore.
A fiscal deficit of Rs 11,286.47 crore, is estimated to be 2.81 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) of the next fiscal, he said.
The budget spending shall be met through the state’s Rs 24,850-crore tax revenue, Rs 13,762.84-crore non-tax revenue, Rs 17,405.74-crore central assistance and Rs 27,006.58-crore share in central taxes, besides Rs 18,000-crore public debt, the minister said.
A 27-per cent hike in allocation for the health sector has been proposed, and a 20-per cent increase for drinking water and sanitation.
Oraon said Jharkhand’s growth rate was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and a decline of 4.7 per cent was registered for 2020-21 as against a slide of 7.3 per cent in GSDP.
He added that a growth rate of 8.8 percent is expected in the current fiscal.
The budget also focuses on sectors like water, electricity, roads and universal pension.
Oraon said on the agriculture front, Rs 836 crore has been transferred to the accounts over 2 lakh farmers under the Jharkhand Agriculture Loan Waiver Scheme.
The budget also proposed creation of 12.5 crore man-days in the next fiscal under MNREGA, while it said under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Rural), the construction work of 10.44 lakh houses has been completed so far.
Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren termed the budget focussing on all section of the society.
“The budget focusses on the development of the students, farmers, labourers, and the businessmen in the state. We want the government schemes to benefit each and every person in the state,” the Jharkhand CM said.
Key highlights of the Budget
Major focus has been given on heath sector as the budget for it has been icnreased by 27%.
To execute the National Education Policy and the Right to Education Act, additional teaching positions will be established to bring the teacher-to-student ratio up to the national level.
A provision of Rs 3055 crore has been made alloted for urban development.
Several flyovers and inner ring road have been announced.
2.56 lakh saplings have been proposed to be planted.
Chief Minister Sarathi Yojana has been launched
Under the Ambedkar scheme, new houses will be constructed
Jharkhand’s government would offer warm clothing to 15 lakh youngsters at the state’s Anganwadi institutions. The budget includes a provision for this purpose.
The Guruji Credit Card initiative will be launched in order to give financial aid to students pursuing higher education.
The state administration intends to encourage ecotourism.
The state government plans to spend Rs 349.39 crore on tourism and arts and culture.
Each Anganwadi facility will receive one water purifier to ensure the availability of utensils and clean drinking water for cooking and the dispensing of supplemental nutrition.
The state will launch the Godhan Vikas Yojana. The government will encourage the use of biogas by purchasing cow manure. This will connect 40 thousand farmers to self-employment.
Oppn terms budget as directionless, negating development
Union Minister for tribal affairs and former Chief Minister Jharkhand Arjun Munda said that this budget appears to be regressive and negating development.
“It will not be called expedient from anywhere for the development and challenges required for the state. On one hand the financial management in resource accretion is proving to be negative, on the ground due to non-appointment of the allocated amount successfully at the right time. Outcome is not visible. There is immense potential for development in Jharkhand. The need of the hour is to realize the challenges of its economic management and gross investment. While the central government has given timely central taxes, contribution and financial assistance but the State Government is lagging behind in self-tax revenue in many respects. Due to which the reduction in the amount provided is visible,” said Munda.
Former chief minister and BJP national vice-president, Raghubar Das termed budget as hollow and directionless as the manifesto of the ruling parties.
“The government, crying out for funds, has increased the size of the budget, but has not presented any concrete policy on how the money will be spent. This incompetent government could not even spend half of the last budget of 92,000 crores, yet increasing the size of the budget is beyond comprehension. The government, which describes itself as farmer friendly and village friendly, is neither concerned about the farmers nor the village. No provision has been made in the budget for stove expenses for sisters, nor has special provision been made for unemployment allowance of youth,” said Das.
Independent MLA from Jamshedpur East, Saryu Roy said, the is like any other Govt. document which reveals a lot but conceals the vital.
This budget is even less than the addition of previous year’s Budget estimate and three supplementary budget figures.
“This current year (2022-23) budget is Rs. 485 crores less than gross budget estimate of previous year (2021-22). Current year’s schemes are indicated but it lacks analysis of physical and financial impacts of the schemes announced in last year’s budget. Details of utilisation of the amounts parked in civil deposit and PL account and analysis of its expenditure schedule has been concealed wisely. The budget is indicative of weak spending capacity of the state administration which needs thorough restructuring,” said Roy.
