Haryana Finance Minister Captain Ajay Singh Yadav would present his maiden budget in the state Assembly on March 9. Talking to Business Standard, Yadav said the state government got a compensation of Rs 800 crore against the CST for 2009-10 from the Centre and an equal amount was expected in 2010-11, which would help them tremendously in fiscal management.
He added that revision of lower limit on value added tax from 4 per cent to 5 per cent would also help them to mobilise about Rs 250 crore in the coming financial year.
The slowdown in the economy and the burgeoning power bill to the agriculture sector made fiscal management quite challenging.
The state has a burden of Rs 3,500 crore of power subsidy which according to officials has to be absorbed in any case. The state plans to monitor power theft in order to contain the power subsidy of agriculture sector.
The state is heading for a deficit of about Rs 3,300 crore in its annual budget.
Yadav said they gave their recommendations to the Union finance minister to make provisions for Haryana under various heads to overcome the imbalance of receipts and expenditure.
He said the Centre had fixed Rs 100 per day as minimum wages under NREGA. Since the minimum wage rate in Haryana was Rs 137 for unskilled labour so the scheme should allow states to fix the minimum wages.
He maintained that the loans raised by the state government for making procurement on behalf of the Food Corporation of India should not be included while arriving at the figures of fiscal deficit as per the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.
The state asked for a special package to promote industry in the state as there was exodus of industry to the hilly state to seek tax incentives.
He added that the state budget would try to incorporate various sectors for the holistic development of the state.
