Budget session likely to begin on March 12

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 2

Even as Punjab gets ready to call its Budget session next week, the state’s own tax collections are showing a less than targeted growth. The state continues to have higher revenue deficit inspite of higher transfer of taxes from the Centre.

The Punjab Cabinet, which meets on Wednesday evening, will be taking a decision on calling the Budget session. The session is likely to begin on March 12, and the Budget proposals for 2015-16 are likely to be presented in early third week of March.

Among other decisions expected to be taken by the Cabinet is re-floating the online lottery for Punjab, which has failed to get any response because the bidders found the revenue target of Rs150 crore too high. A revised (lower) revenue target for online lottery is to be put up before the Cabinet for its approval. For 2015-16, the budget size is expected to be almost 8 to 10 per cent higher—at around Rs63,000 crore—than that for 2014-15 (Rs58,593 crore).

The exercise to prepare the budget is presently underway. With the Union Budget proposals for 2015-16 having already been announced, officials in the Finance department are reading the fine print of the Union Budget to know how much allocation the state will receive in the next fiscal. This will then be factored in while making the final budget proposals.

Sources in the Finance department told The Tribune that the annual plan for the state was also in the final stage of implementation. As against an annual plan size of Rs20,100 crore in the current fiscal, the annual plan in the coming financial year would be around Rs22,500 crore. Now with the higher transfer of central taxes, most of the plan schemes will have to be funded by the state from its own consolidated fund.

As of now, the state’s financial health does not seem that good. As against target revenue deficit of Rs4,252.63 crore for 2014-15, the revenue deficit (audited figures till November 31) has already touched Rs2,338.20 crore and the fiscal deficit is Rs4,284.48 crore. The state has already received 53.35 per cent of the total revenue receipts (Rs23,950.02 crore). Out of it, it has spent Rs23,540.85 crore (53.49 per cent). The loans and advances that the state has taken are 117.15 per cent more than what it took in the corresponding period last year. The gross borrowing till November 31 is Rs7,129.62 crore.