Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, who also holds the finance portfolio presented Rs 9000 crore tax free budget for the financial year 2020-2021 in the assembly. The budget is Rs 575 crore more than the previous year’s outlay of Rs 8,425 crore and Rs 1073 crore more than the revised budget outlay of Rs 7927 crore in 2019-2020.
Note– The budget was presented amid objections from Lt Governor Kiran Bedi and without her customary address.
Highlights of the budget:
i.Resources of the budget
- Rs 5257 crore of the budget is from the state’s own resources.
- Rs 2023 crore the budget from central assistance and centrally sponsored schemes
- Rs 1710 crore of the budget will be from open market borrowings and negotiated loans from central financial institutions (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development- NABARD, Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd (HUDCO) and others).
ii.Major Expenses
The major expenditure will be the following:
- Rs 1966 crores for salaries,Rs 1177 crores for pension, Rs 1625 crores for repayment of loans and interest and Rs 1525 crores for power purchase.
iii.Old age pension scheme– Rs 896 crores has been earmarked for the old age pension scheme.
iv.Grants– Rs 864 crores earmarked for grants to educational institutions, public sector undertakings and cooperative institutions.
v.Bank Loans– Bank loans of Rs 87 crore will be arranged for students to pursue their education.
vi.Free breakfast scheme
The free breakfast scheme which is now implemented in Puducherry schools will be named after former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister late M Karunanidhi. Nutritious food will be included in it, presently only milk is supplied to students.
vii.To implement infrastructure development scheme
The government will implement a massive infrastructure development scheme with a loan of Rs 746.53 crore from JICA (a Japanese International Cooperative Agency) to meet the UT’s power requirements.
About Puducherry
Capital– Pondicherry
Recent Related News:
i.Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Nitin Patel presented a Rs 2,17,287 crore budget for the financial year 2020-21.
ii.Andhra Pradesh becomes the 1st Indian State to present its Budget amid COVID-19. The budget of Rs 2.24 lakh crore for the FY20-21 was presented.
