SHIMLA: Himachal chief minister
Jai Ram Thakur on Friday presented an Rs 51,365-crore budget for the financial year 2022-23.
In the election year, the chief minister has tried to woo every section of society by making some announcements for them.
The budget for 2022-23 does not propose new taxes.
Honorarium of urban local bodies, village panchayats, zila parishad, panchayat samitis, anganwari workers and asha workers has been increased.
The social security pension amount has been increased and old age pension age limit has been decreased to 60 years. The budget includes 30,000 new jobs in 2022-23.
Presenting the budget, the CM said that he was feeling happy while presenting the fifth budget of his government.
He said according to budget estimates, the total revenue receipts are expected to be Rs 36,375 crore and revenue expenditure is estimated at Rs 40,278 crore, with revenue deficit estimated to be Rs 3,903 crore.
The fiscal deficit is expected to be Rs 9,602 crore which is 4.98% of the state’s GDP.
According to the 2022-23 budget, out of every Rs 100, Rs 26 will be spent on salary, Rs 15 on pension, Rs 10 on interest payments, Rs 11 on loan repayments, Rs 9 for grants for autonomous bodies and remaining Rs 29 will be spent on other activities including capital works.
The CM said the state witnessed weak health infrastructure during the pandemic but the government faced all the problems.
He said the state’s health infrastructure was developed rapidly which helped Himachal Pradesh in fighting second and third waves of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the state had only two oxygen plants before the pandemic but now it has 48 plants and more than 5,000 oxygen concentrators.
He said it is matter of pride for Himachal Pradesh that Russian vaccine Sputnik is being produced commercially in the state.
He said the state government has written a development story in the last four years despite many challenges.
The CM said that his government has tried to help each section of society through Ujjwala, PM Kisan Samman, Ayushman Bharat, Himcare, Sahara, Janmanch and many other schemes.
Thakur said that the Centre gave Rs 600 crore extra help to the state during 2021-22 for capital investment and the money is being spent to complete important projects.
The increase in capital investment has not only strengthened the state financially but also created many jobs.
He said the GDP in 2021-22 is expected to be 9.2% while the state had witnessed a negative growth of 7.3% in 2020-21.
The agriculture has witnessed growth of 3.9%, industry 11.8% and service sector by 8.2% in 2021-22.
The economy of the state is expected to have a growth of 8.3per cent in 2021-22. He said such a growth despite pandemic is an achievement of the government.
The GSDP in the year 2021-22 is estimated at 1,75,173 crore and per capita income at is estimated at 2,01,854 which is more than the estimated national per capita income by Rs 51,528.
The CM said there is a provision of opening a single nodal agency account for all the Centre-funded projects so that all funds are released to the concerned departments’ accounts. All 91 projects of the Centre in Himachal are brought under purview of this scheme.
He said that Rs 12,921 crore outlay has been proposed for 2022-23, of which state development budget outlay will be Rs 9,534 crore and Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and OBC development outlay will be Rs 2,400 crore, Rs 865 crore and Rs 152 crore respectively.
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