No new taxes in Jharkhand budget

The Jharkhand government has not proposed any fresh taxes and avoided any new schemes in its annual budget for the financial year 2008-09, placed in the state Assembly on March 5.

The state's deputy chief minister who also holds the finance portfolio, Stephen Marandi, presented a Rs 18,989.72 crore budget for the financial year 2008-09.

The thrust was on agriculture, rural development, irrigation, education and health sectors.

The finance minister stated that the gross fiscal deficit has been reduced by 35.96 per cent from Rs 4774.91 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 3057.63 crore in 2008-09.

In the budget 27.40 per cent of the plan expenditure has been proposed for agriculture, rural development and irrigation sectors, while an outlay of 19.59 per cent has been presented for education and health sectors.

A total of Rs 1,020 crore (12.73 per cent of the plan expenditure) has been provided for energy, industry and transport sector, while Rs 640 crore (7.98 per cent) was allocated for roads, bridges and buildings.

From the total estimated expenditure of Rs 18,851.07 crore, Rs 9652.96 crore (51.21 per cent) was earmarked for plan expenditure and Rs 9198.11 crore (48.79 per cent) for non-plan expenditure. The budged carried Rs 2200.08 crore revenue surplus, compared to Rs 506.87 crore revenue deficit in 2007-08.

In the budget speech, the finance minister did not mention any mega project or welfare scheme for 2008-09.