| Following the finance minister's call last year, MP presented a revenue-surplus budget this fiscal; however, growth in the primary sector has not been satisfactory. |
| "We are unlikely to meet the target of bringing down the fiscal deficit to 3 per cent by 2008-09 and have urged the finance minister to extend the deadline by another year," MP Finance Minister Raghavji told Business Standard. He is also planning to launch "gender budgeting" by allocating a certain portion to women. |
| He said his government would focus more on fund allocation to infrastructure projects so that the farm sector and related activities like horticulture could get a boost. Last year, the minister presented a Rs 45.55 crore deficit budget and claimed to cut down the revenue deficit to Rs 25.49 crore as against Rs 1,100 crore over the previous year. However, he opened the account with a revenue surplus of Rs 970.22 crore. |
| "This year the amount is likely to touch Rs 2,000 crore. The amount will be used for development work and infrastructure creation," said Raghavji. |
| State expenditure touched Rs 28,397.55 crore against the receipts of Rs 28,617.71 crore this fiscal, which, according to Raghavji, might touch Rs 30,000 crore (expenditure). |
| "We will allocate more funds to sectors like roads, power and infrastructure," he said, adding, "the farm and social sectors (health and education) will be our top priority." Although budget presentation is still far, budgetary exercise has been started. State demands for ad valorem on coal royalty have not met so far. |
| "At present, most of the states get coal royalty on tonnage basis, which should be on an ad valorem basis since coal prices have gone five times. As a result the state might have lost some Rs 9,000 crore so far." |
| MP is also demanding more plan allocation to manage a huge forest cover. The plan allocation, according to sources, was likely to get Rs 12,000 crore against Rs 9,000 crore of the previous year. |
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