Finance Minister Punjab Manpreet Badal at Vidhan Sabha after presenting Budget on Saturday in Chandigarh. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)
Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal presented the state budget in the assembly on Saturday amid protests by Akali Dal. Presenting the first budget of the Congress government, Badal in his budget speech said that in 2017-18, the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of the state has gone up to Rs 4.77 lakh crore from Rs 4.33 lakh crore in the previous fiscal year. The budget is likely to be focused on education and health.
Follow Punjab Budget 2018 Highlights:
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Finance Minister Punjab Manpreet Badal at Vidhan Sabha after presenting Budget on Saturday in Chandigarh. (Express Photo)
Presenting the Budget Finance Minister Manpreet Badal thanks the Speaker for saving Rs 48 lakh of state by allowing budget documents to be stored in hard disk drives rather than paper.
Finance Minister Badal announced a corpus of Rs 500 crore for smart cities in the state, along with Rs 1067 for building roads, bridges and infrastructure. Meanwhile, to develop border areas the minister set aside a fund of Rs 300 crore.
Finance Minister sets up an aim for the government to make the state open defecation free by June of 2018. A corpus of Rs 100 crore has been set aside for swatch Bharat mission.
In a big move, the government on Saturday announced an increase of 13 per cent on health outlay, pegging the budget allocation at Rs 4015 crore. Meanwhile, the finance minister also announced a cancer fund with a budget of Rs 30 crore.
The government in a bid to improve the present condition of state universities announced an increment in university budget by atleast 6 per cent. Following the change, Punjab University will get Rs 42.62 crore, while Punjab University Patiala to get a one time grant of Rs 50 crore.
The government on Saturday announced a capital of Rs 3,020 crore for rural development, Rs 120 crore for school education and building additional classrooms. Meanwhile, Rs 10 crore has been set aside for maintenance and repair of schools, the government also announced for installing solar power systems for all senior secondary schools.
In a major push to agriculture, the Finance Minister announced an outlay of Rs 14,734 crore for agriculture. Rs 55 crore for horticulture and Rs 100 crore for paddy stubble management has been announced in the budget.
Following in the footsteps of the UP and Maharashtra government, the Punjab government too has announced a loan waiver and has set aside Rs 4250 crore for this purpose.
Revenue expenditure has risen from Rs. 55,296 crore to Rs 71,182 crore in 2018-19, meanwhile, expenditure on interest payments rose from Rs 11,642 crore to Rs 15175 crore , an increase of 30 per cent.
In 2017-18, the GSDP of Punjab has gone up to Rs 4.77 lakh crore from Rs 4.33 lakh crore last fiscal, said Manpreet Badal while presenting the state budget. We could only keep a target of fiscal deficit at 3.81 per cent for 2018-19, which is more than the provisions of FRBM Act, he added.