M A I N   N E W S

HP Budget ’07
Punjab effect: CM in sop mode
Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

He has made allout efforts to woo employees and pensioners, who play a decisive role in the elections, by granting 5 per cent interim relief, and deciding to fill 33,000 vacant functional posts. Besides, housing loans to all those eligible without delay, non-practising allowance to veterinarians and ayurvedic doctors on a par with medical doctors, raising the emoluments of anganadi workers, panchayat sahayaks and chowkidars, raising ration allowance of police constables from Rs 100 to Rs 175 per month, hike in daily wages of Home Guards from Rs 100 to Rs 130 per day, special additional increment to drivers in addition to assured career progression scheme and equating salaries of para-teachers with those on contract, are among other major decisions. All contract teachers will be given regular increments and 1681 vidya upasaks will be given basic pay and dearness pay of JBTs.

Under the subsidised ration scheme, wheat will be made available at a fixed price of Rs 2 per kg to Antodaya families, Rs 5.25 per kg to BPL families and at a maximum of Rs 8.65 per kg for all others. Similarly, rice will be made available at a fixed price of Rs 3, Rs 6.85 per kg and Rs 10.55 per kg for the three categories.

Further, three dals, namely malka, dal chana and urd will be made available at fixed prices of Rs 20, Rs 30 and Rs 30 per kg, respectively. The entitlement will be 1 kg of each dal per family per month. The subsidy on account of this will be Rs 75 crore per annum. Edible oil sold through the fair price shops will be made available at Rs 50 per litre per month for all 14 lakh ration card holders and iodised salt at Rs 4 per kg. The subsidy on account of these will be Rs 22 crore per annum.

The stamp duty on registration has been reduced from 8 to 5 per cent to check evasion and the revenue department will consider differential rate for women for land ownership. To avoid congestion, token tax on vehicles will be raised to 5 percent and further to 9 per cent by year 2012. The fee for vehicles over 15 years will be fixed at 10 per cent to decrease pollution. The excise and taxation department will explore the possibility of switching to an ad valorem excise duty structure, while the transport department will examine how to improve motor vehicle taxes by using ad valorem tax on registration of new vehicles.

Information technology fees for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe students has been reduced from Rs 130 to Rs 30 per month.

A new department of environment and pollution control will be set up to help coordinate the activities of the departments of transport, industries and forest having a bearing on environment. The debt road infrastructure has been given high priority with an allocation of Rs 278 crore for the roads and transport sector. An automatic licensing scheme for bus permits where at least 60 per cent of the route falls on rural roads, has been mooted and equity investment in Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) is to be doubled to provide better services to the public.

Next comes the power sector which will have an allocation of Rs 154 crore. All unallocated hydro power projects above 100 MW capacity will be allotted before September 30, 2007.

A medical college is to be set up in Mandi in the government sector and another in Hamirpur in the private sector, besides five degree colleges, 150 senior secondary schools, 50 high schools and 200 middle schools which are to be opened in 2007-08.

As many as 1500 additional hand pumps will be installed up within the next financial year at a cost of Rs. 20 crore. A special budget provision of Rs. 5 crore has been made to import horticulture plants and root stock, to boost horticulture productivity.

The total size of the budget is Rs 9684 crore for which approximately 25 percent, about Rs 2300 crore, will come through SLR borrowings. The highest outgo of 37 percent will on salaries and pensions, followed by 28 percent on debt servicing and only 28 percent will be spent on development activities. The total loans of the government were likely to increase from Rs 17,484 crore in March 2006 to Rs 18,233 crore and to Rs 20,399 by the end of 2007-08. The total debt as percentage of the gross state domestic product will come down from 68.6 to 64.4 in the current year.