SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Wednesday said that although the fiscal deficit has gone up the state is still revenue-surplus.
Replying to the debate on the Budget in the Assembly, Sangma said that the government has put a lot of stress on certain key sectors like sports where allocation has been enhanced from Rs 65 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 206 crore this year, a jump of 206 per cent.
As for the health sector, Sangma informed the House that in 2018-19, the department was given a budget of Rs 613 crore, which has now been increased to Rs 240 crore.
“There is an increase of 18 per cent in the development budget,” Sangma said.
He also said that the fiscal deficit in the state stood at 3.48 per cent of the GSDP with an amount of Rs 1150 crore which has now increased to 3.68 per cent of the GSDP with an amount of Rs 1320 crore.
He attributed the increase to a reduction of Rs 215 crore from the revenue gap grant of the 14th Finance Commission. Besides, the 5th Pay Commission award also led to an increase in the deficit since the government had to shell out around Rs 1000 crore on account of revised salaries.
The chief minister, however, asserted that the state is revenue-surplus. While last year the surplus stood at Rs 495 crores this year it has increased to Rs 738 crores, he said adding that the state’s own tax and non-tax revenue receipts stood at Rs 2060 crores.
Making a clarion call for reviving and activating projects which are lying idle, the chief minister informed that the Siju Cave in Garo Hills is now being promoted under the Swadesh Darshan scheme of the Union government and an amount of Rs 9 crore will be spent there for different activities.
Earlier, the chief minister said that the government has barred teachers from joining politics since they should focus on education. But, he said, there have been complaints about teachers involving in political campaigning. He, however, added that the government is yet to come up with a notification in this regard.
Stating that the Transport department last year recorded an increase of 4 per cent in the registration of vehicles, he added that it has now generated an additional amount of Rs 200 crore.
In addition, the tendering process for setting up of pollution testing centres in all the eleven districts is also on.
As far as poor street lighting in Shillong is concerned, Sangma said that the government is thinking of engaging private companies and PSUs to replace all the lights in the town with the LED lights which would reduce the bills of the municipal board by 50 per cent.
He also said that improvement of Fire Brigade Junction has been sanctioned to ease traffic in the city.
On the development of border areas, the chief minister said that the infrastructure in the border areas needs to be boosted and that the Umsning-Jagiroad road will be sanctioned soon.
About the free drug policy, Sangma informed that the budget for the programme has been increased to 30 per cent and the government would constitute a monitoring committee to see that all medicines reach the people on time.
