Drive against drugs, education likely focus areas in Punjab Budget

Finance Minister Harpal Cheema will present a Budget for 2025-26 with maximum focus on ridding Punjab of the drug menace, improving public education and health infrastructure, according to sources.

Creating a conducive environment for industrial investment and improving the urban infrastructure are also likely to figure in priority areas.

Though it seems unlikely that the AAP government will introduce any new taxes in its fourth Budget, which will be presented on Wednesday, sources say the proposals for 2025-26 will showcase the fiscal consolidation that the AAP regime has been able to achieve in the past three years.

The focus of the Budget will be on ensuring maximum grants to the Home Affairs and Health Departments to continue with the anti-drug campaign.

The next big thrust in the Budget is expected to be on creating more trauma centres and investing in tertiary healthcare facilities, besides consolidation of Aam Aadmi clinics. In the education sector, emphasis will continue to be on Schools of Eminence and a sharp focus on skill development at school level.

Cheema had earlier announced that model streets would be created in Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar. Amidst the report submitted by the Union Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, in Parliament on Monday stating that Punjab had the second highest debt in the state, the state government is expected to use the revised estimates to show how they have brought down the debt to GSDP ratio, say sources.

The Budget proposals have been prepared by the with help from the Punjab Development Commission. The two advisers for Economic Affairs, Arbind Modi and Sebastian James, have also reportedly helped the Finance Department in framing the roadmap for revenue mobilisation and social engineering.

Pressure to fulfil promise of stipend to women

With the BJP governments in Delhi and Haryana and the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh having announced a monthly honorarium for women, the pressure is on the AAP government in Punjab to fulfil its pre-election promise of providing Rs 1,000 per month to all women.