 "After PC's maths, states await new govt at Centre")
Though this might seem somewhat unusual, experts say the Constitution allows state governments to table more than a Budget a year. Subhash Kashyap, an expert on the Constitution, said, “There are precedents of state governments going for interim Budgets at a time when national elections are round the corner.”
But what prompted three state governments to do so? That centrally sponsored schemes (CSS), the number of which was cut from 126 to 66, with the funds being placed at the hands of state governments, is one of the prominent reasons. It is likely when the full Budget is tabled by the next Union government after the Lok Sabha polls, Plan expenditure will be increased.
Rajasthan was forthcoming on why it had presented an interim Budget. “(By the time the Budget was prepared) we could not get detailed information on centrally-sponsored schemes,” Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who also held the finance portfolio, said in her Budget speech. She added though the Centre had tabled the interim Budget on February 17, the state government had calculated the estimates for its Budget earlier.
In the interim Union Budget for 2014-15, the Centre had increased its assistance to state Plans threefold, compared to the 2013-14 revised estimate.
For 2014-15, while central assistance for the Plans of states and Union territories is pegged at Rs 3.38 lakh crore, against Rs 1.19 lakh crore in the revised estimate for 2013-14, total budgetary support for central Plan expenditure is estimated to fall to Rs 2.16 lakh crore from the 2013-14 revised estimate of Rs 3.56 lakh crore.
In his Budget speech on Friday, Gujarat finance minister Nitin Patel said, “The economic policies of the Union and the states must be complementary to one another. The Union government has decided to present a vote-on-account for 2014-15. Therefore, it is appropriate the policies of state governments are also in line with the approach and direction taken by the government.” Sources in the Gujarat government said the Centre would release funds to states for just four months and therefore, the state government had tabled an interim Budget for this period alone.Officials said Plan expenditure was pegged at Rs 5.55 lakh crore in the 2014-15 Union interim Budget, the same as in the 2013-14 Budget estimate. The next government is likely to increase this and state governments are waiting to know the amount before deciding their own Budgets.
Patel said the Gujarat government didn’t get much time to contemplate the demand for grants.
Gujarat’s decision to present a vote on account also assumes significance as the state’s chief minister, Narendra Modi, is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate for the general elections.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who also held the finance portfolio, tabled an interim Budget on Friday. The state government claimed there wasn’t much time to discuss a full Budget in the Assembly before the Lok Sabha poll dates were announced by the Election Commission and the model code of conduct came into force. Ironically, though Jharkhand is scheduled to go to polls in December and January, it presented a full Budget for 2014-15 on Friday. When contacted, state finance minister Rajendra Prasad Singh said as various sectors had demanded allocations, a full Budget had been presented.
A day after the Union Budget, West Bengal also presented a full Budget. Sources said there was no reason for the government to go for an interim Budget, as elections were scheduled for the Lok Sabha, not the state Assembly.
(WIth inputs from Kolkata, Gandhinagar and Lucknow)