Free 300 units of power in AAP's first Punjab budget

CHANDIGARH: The Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government tabled its first budget on Monday for a "new Punjab", headlining it with the pre-poll sop of 300 free units of electricity to each household from July 1, no new taxes and increased allocation to health and education.
Another of AAP's big promises - Rs 1,000 a month to every woman - didn't make it to the Rs 1.5-lakh crore budget that finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema termed "a game-changer". Cheema said the free-electricity scheme would cost the exchequer Rs 1,800 crore, which the government was "prepared to finance by cutting wasteful expenditure and enhancing revenue".
AAP's first Punjab budget promises 16 new med colleges in 5 years
In the AAP government's first budget for Punjab, the increased outlay for key sectors includes a 16.2% hike in the amount earmarked for school and higher education, 48% more for technical education, 57% extra for medical education and an additional 23.8% for healthcare, report Vibhor Mohan and Sanjeev Verma. Promising 16 new medical colleges over the next five years, Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema announced Rs 200 crore for "schools of eminence" and the appointment of "estate managers" for clusters of government schools with a budget of Rs 123 crore. An allocation of Rs 108 crore was made for police modernisation, including Rs 30 crore for cyber-crime control rooms in all districts.
The higher allocations coincide with the Centre's GST compensation of Rs 15,000 crore coming to an end, but Cheema said he was confident the new excise policy and more tax collection would help the state sail through. Cheema claimed revenue augmentation was on and he expected receipts to go up by 17%, contributing Rs 95,378 crore to the kitty. "The hallmark of this ambitious feat is that this would be done without imposing any new tax on the people of Punjab," he said. The estimated outstanding debt of the state for 2022-23 stands at Rs 3,05,361 crore and the revenue deficit this year at Rs 12553.8 crore.