UP govt tables annual budget of Rs 5.12 trn, fiscal deficit a tad under 3%

Adityanath's 4th Budget is 7% higher than that of the current year, whose size is Rs 4.79 trillion

The Uttar Pradesh government today tabled its Annual Budget for 2020-21, with a size beyond Rs 5.12 trillion. This is almost 7 per cent higher than the current year’s Annual Budget 2019-20 of about Rs 4.79 trillion.

In his fourth consecutive Budget, the Yogi Adityanath government sought to pursue the path of fiscal discipline, and tamed fiscal deficit at 2.97 per cent, akin to the current financial year, at Rs 53,195 crore – which is within the mandated three per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act.

At the same time, the public debt is also projected at a manageable level of 28.8 per cent of GSDP. The government has proposed new schemes worth nearly Rs 11,000 crore.

Although the Annual Budget of 2019-20, tabled on February 7, 2019, had a size of Rs 4.79 trillion, the total size of the state budget for the current financial year had burgeoned to Rs 4.96 trillion following the tabling of two supplementary budgets in the legislature on July 23 and December 17, 2019, worth Rs 13,595 crore and Rs 4,210 crore respectively.

According to the Budget tabled by UP finance minister Suresh Khanna, the state has estimated receipts of over Rs 5 trillion, including Rs 4.22 trillion and Rs 78,000 crore in revenue and capital receipts respectively.

Under the budgetary expenses, more than Rs 3.95 trillion and Rs 1.18 trillion have been estimated under revenue and capital expenditure heads respectively.

The government has projected net state goods and services tax (SGST) and value added tax (VAT) kitty of Rs 91,568 crore, apart from Rs 37,500 crore in excise revenue.

Meanwhile, the state has allocated more than Rs 5,400 crore for the airport, metro and expressway projects, including Ganga Expressway (RS 2,000 crore), Jewar International Airport (Rs 2,000 crore), Ayodhya Airport (Rs 500 crore) and metro rail projects of Kanpur, Agra and Gorakhpur (Rs 844 crore). A sum of Rs 92.50 crore has also been provided for the other airports under the regional connectively scheme.

The state has allocated Rs 300 crore and Rs 210 crore for the socioeconomic development in the backward regions of Purvanchal (Eastern UP) and Bundelkhand respectively.

Besides, more than Rs 7,400 crore has been provided for different rural road and highway projects under the state public works department (PWD, apart from World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded road projects.

The Adityanath dispensation has given Rs 250 crore for the promotion of the state micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) under the flagship one district, one product (ODOP) project.

The state has further allocated Rs 250 crore for the marriage of girls hailing from the poor families.

For the skill development of the youth, the government has proposed to set of ‘Yuva Hub’ at all the 75 districts of the state, for which Rs 1,200 crore have been provided in the budget.

The state has allocated nearly Rs 9,000 crore for different water projects, including canals, potable water, water conservation, irrigation etc.