No new taxes proposed in Punjab Budget

State ready to implement the value-added tax: Lal Singh

Punjab Finance Minister Lal Singh yesterday presented in the Assembly a Rs 29,830 crore Budget for 2004-05, showing a revenue deficit of Rs 3,442 crore. The Budget proposes no new taxes or "concessions".

Presenting the third budget of the Congress-led government, Singh said people of Punjab were already overburdened and it would be unjustifiable to impose new taxes or revise the existing levies.

He said the government would rather generate more revenue through prevention of tax evasion than impose more taxes on people. "We do not want to burden the people with taxes," he said.

Singh said the Rs 96.92 crore decrease in revenue deficit in the current fiscal year as compared to the revenue deficit of Rs 3539.38 crore in the previous year was on account of savings on interest payments and other reform measures initiated by the government.

Around Rs 217 crore was saved on account of interest payments in the past two years, he added.

The finance minister said the state was ready for the implementation of the value-added tax and would adhere to the roadmap and the deadline decided by the central government.

He said the government planned to bridge the Rs 505.59 crore deficit by checking leaks in the sales tax collections. The state had an estimated leakages of Rs 1,000 crore of sales tax a year, he added.

In 2003-04, the sales tax collections stood at around Rs 3,500 crore and Rs 4,025 crore was being anticipated in 2004-05, he said.

The Budget opens with a deficit balance of Rs 571.93 crore and closes with a deficit balance of Rs 505.59 crore. The minister said the Budget had a revenue expenditure of Rs 19,120.90 crore as against the revenue receipts of Rs 15,678.44 crore.

The size of the annual Plan had been fixed at Rs 3,503.81 crore against the core Plan outlay of Rs 2,822.00 crore for 2003-04, an increase of 24.16 per cent, he said.

"In the current financial year the debt swap of over Rs 2,800 crore is expected to take place. This has helped the state to control debt and reduce the interest burden by Rs 217 crore in the previous two years and in the current year the interest liability will go down by another Rs 179 crore," Singh said after presenting the Budget.

"The cumulative savings to the state will amount to Rs 6,051 crore during the tenure of loans," Singh said.

He said the measures taken by the state government like computerisation of tax operations of the excise and taxation department, increase in sales tax on petrol, lubricants, glass sheets, crockery, entry tax on rice were expected to yield around Rs 117 crore on an annualised basis.

The fiscal reform path being followed by the government is expected to further bring down the revenue deficit in the next year, he added.

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The agenda

• Around Rs 217 crore was saved on account of interest payments in the past two years
• The government plans to bridge the Rs 505.59 crore deficit by checking leaks in the sales tax collections
• In 2003-04, the sales tax collections stood at around Rs 3,500 crore and Rs 4,025 crore is being anticipated in 2004-05