SHILLONG, March 10: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Wednesday presented a tax-free deficit budget of Rs 1,570 crore for 2021-22, largely owing to the Centre’s inability to release state’s full share of central taxes on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Presenting the budget during the Assembly budget session, Sangma informed that the total receipts is estimated at Rs 17,509 crore of which the revenue receipts are estimated at Rs 15,232 crore and capital receipts at Rs 2,277 crore excluding borrowings of Rs 2,247 crore. The total receipts are estimated to be Rs 15, 262.
On the expenditure side, Chief Minister informed that the total expenditure is estimated at Rs 17,603 crore of which the revenue expenditure is estimated at Rs 13,956 crore and capital expenditure at Rs 3,647 crore.
Excluding repayment of loans of Rs 771 crore, he informed that the total estimated expenditure is Rs 16,832 crore.
The interest payment for 2021-22 is estimated at Rs 1,047 crore and pension payments at Rs 1,303 crore, he said.
Meanwhile, he said that for the year 2020-2021, the amount of tax transfers from the Union Government has been reduced dramatically, owing to the economic impact of the pandemic.
He said the Fifteenth Finance Commission submitted its final report of the Government of India covering the five-year award period of 2021-2026. He said the Commission has recommended Rs 39,012 crore which includes share of Central taxes of Rs 32,403, revenue gap grants of Rs 3,137 crore, grants of Rs 711 crore to Autonomous District Councils, health grants of Rs 311 crore and disaster management grants of Rs 403 crore.
Sangma said the state’s share in the divisible pool of taxes has been increased from 0.645 % in the Fourteenth Finance Commission to 0.767% for the period of 2021-2026.
“This increase is a result of the efforts of the state government over the last two years. Through engagement with the Finance Commission, the government was able to highlight the need for increased resources. For 2021-22, the share of Central taxes is estimated at Rs 5,105 crore and the revenue gap grant is estimated at Rs 1,279 crore,” the CM said.
He said in addition to the central transfers, the state is taking steps to increase its own tax and non-tax revenue. “For the current financial year, the state’s own tax revenue, including GST compensation, is expected to touch Rs 2,213 crore, which is an 11% increase over 2019-2020 financial year. The excise revenue for 2020-2021 is expected to touch an all-time high of Rs 350 crore, an increase of 27% over the last fiscal year,” Sangma said.
According to him, the non-tax revenue is expected to be about Rs 374 crore, a 29% reduction from last year.
“I am confident the state’s revenue collection would improve significantly in the next financial year. For 2021-2022, I have estimated Rs 2,579 crore and Rs 694 crore for tax and non-tax revenue collection respectively,” the CM said.
He further stated that the increase in tax devolution and revenue-enhancing measures would help in mobilising the much-needed resources to meet development expenditure, pegged at Rs 3,300 crore.
Sangma said the state government has spent substantial resources in protecting health and providing relief despite the tough financial situation.
“We set up over 38,000 additional beds in hospitals and corona care centres, conducted a total of 3.8 lakh tests and set up testing capacities in all districts in a record time,” he said.
He said the government provided relief to over two lakh labourers and workers in the unorganised sector and provision kits to 29,000 households and brought back home 6,000 stranded citizens.
Stating that the economic impact of the pandemic has been immense, he said the Union government increased its own spending and allowed the states to go beyond the fiscal deficit targets set by the FRBM Act.
“My government took various measures to increase public spending. The implementation of the externally-aided projects and Centrally-sponsored programmes was fast-tracked, in addition to launching new state-sponsored programmes and projects,” the CM said.
He said work for connectivity worth Rs 1,315 crore has been already taken up while Rs 1,950 crore of PMGSY road projects are being constructed. “We recently launched the Chief Minister Mobilization Support and Producers programme under which Rs 5,000 is being provided to farming households. An amount of Rs 16 crore is being disbursed under the programme,” he told the House.