By ARUN PRATAP SINGH
GAIRSAIN, 4 Mar: Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, who also holds charge as Finance Minister, tabled a Rs 53,526.97 crore budget for FY 2020-21 in the Vidhan Sabha today. The government has claimed a revenue surplus budget for the year with a revenue surplus of around Rs 50 crores, but with an estimated fiscal deficit of Rs 7549.74 crores. It may be recalled that, last year, the government had presented a budget of Rs 45,585 crores. As per the budget estimate for 2020- 21, total receipts of Rs 52,423.92 crore are estimated. Of the total receipts estimated for the year 2020-21, an amount of Rs 42, 439.33 crores is estimated to by way of revenue receipts, while the remaining amount of Rs 9,984.59 crores is estimated by way of capital receipts. Revenue receipts include Rs 22,418.10 crores by way of tax revenue share, which includes Rs 8,657.35 crore of the state’s share in the central taxes. Total revenue from the state’s own sources is estimated to be Rs 17,300.17 crores, of which an amount of Rs 13,760.75 crores is estimated to be by way of tax revenue and an amount of 3,539.42 crores by way of non-tax revenue. During his budget speech in the House, Rawat disclosed that the total expenditure outlay for the Financial Year 2020-21 was estimated to be Rs 53,526.97 crores. Of this amount, a significant portion amounting to Rs 14,673.96 is a committed expenditure on the salaries and an amount of Rs 6304 crores in the form of pensions of the state government employees. In addition, a committed expenditure of Rs 1232.63 crores is estimated to be incurred on salaries and pensions of employees of other organisations and bodies, mainly teachers and other staff of aided educational institutions. Thus, the budgeted expenditure on salaries alone amounts to around 30.89 per cent, while the budgeted expenditure on pensions amounts to around 13 per cent of the entire expenditure estimated for FY 2020-21. Expenditure in the form of interest payments on loans is estimated to be Rs 3503.31 crores. Of the total estimated expenditure for FY 2020-21, an amount of Rs 42,389.67 crores has been budgeted to be incurred in form of revenue expenditure, while the remaining expenditure of Rs 11,137.38 crores is estimated to be incurred under the capital head. The Government has claimed the budget to be a revenue surplus budget estimated at Rs 49.66 crores. At the same time, however, the fiscal deficit is estimated to be Rs 7549.74 crores. The deficit would be adjusted against the public accounts head. Among the major allocations budgeted by the government, an amount of Rs 9,149 crores has been allocated to the education sector, Rs 2,477 crores have been provided for the health and medical sector, Rs 101.29 crores for Information and publicity, Rs 2014 crores for welfare schemes, Rs 2960.35 crores for urban development, housing and water supplies, Rs 1048 crores for the agriculture sector, Rs 394 crores on Horticulture, Rs 414 crores on animal husbandry, Rs 390.23 crores for labour welfare, Rs 170 crores for the cooperative sector, Rs 2313.09 crores for Rural Development (mostly centrally funded schemes), Rs 366 crores for the Power Sector, Rs 2055 crores for PWD, Rs 442 crores for industry, Rs 285 crores for tourism, Rs 1120 crores for forests, Rs 1279 crores for Irrigation & Flood Control, Rs 592 crores for Transport and Rs 234 crores for Food.
