Revenue spending gets lion's share of 14K-cr Mizoram budget

AIZAWL: Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga on Monday presented a Rs 14,209.95 crore state budget for the 2023-2024 financial year, with revenue expenditure getting the lion's share of it. He also tabled the supplementary demand for grants for the current financial year (2022-23) amounting to Rs 3,265.69 crore with the budget.
"The budget has no new proposals for taxes and no increase in the existing tax rates. It is neither a deficit budget nor a surplus one," Zoramthanga, who also holds the finance portfolio, said.
Stating that the Covid-19 pandemic adversely affected the economy, he said the state government is fighting for survival and so it has not taken up development activities in a big way.
Out of the Rs 14,209.95 crore, Rs 11,068.79 crore has been earmarked for revenue expenditure (establishment costs), which is a whopping 78.10% of the total budgetary allocation, while a meagre Rs 3,141.19 crore has been allotted for capital expenditure (development activities). The latter accounts for 21.90% of the total budget.
Zoramthanga said the decrease in the estimated capital expenditure was due to the paucity of Rs 600 crore, which was allocated under PM-devINE, during the current financial year.
He said while the state government is expecting at least Rs 500 crore under the Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI), Rs 200 crore has been allocated in the budget due to lack of any communication from the Centre.
He further said the state government did not get more than Rs 3,000 crore, which it had expected to receive from the Centre, because of pandemic-induced financial problems. "I have allocated Rs 60 crore for the healthcare scheme, out of which Rs 10 crore would be raised from the state lottery," he said.
The chief minister has allocated Rs 595 crore under the state government's flagship programme - Socio-Economic Development Policy (SEDP), out of which Rs 300 crore has been earmarked for a family-oriented scheme under the policy.