Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Monday presented vote-on-account for the first four months of the next financial year (April to July) totalling Rs 11,395.23 crore in the Vidhan Sabha. A regular Budget for the state would be presented in June-July.
Badal said since the model code of conduct was already in place, there was no possibility of having a regular Budget. “All we can have is a vote-on-account Budget in this session in which no fresh proposals would be considered,” he said.
Badal had earlier faced criticism from all quarters for not presenting the regular Budget. He, however, defended his stance by saying that the annual plans of Punjab and a host of other states had not been approved so far by the Planning Commission.
“The state government will focus on deriving maximum benefits from the central schemes, which will be announced in the Union budget later,” Badal said earlier.
He also informed that the government would focus on schemes and programmes immediately after the Union Budget was presented.
“We would like to focus on schemes and programmes which can benefit the people of Punjab at large,” he said.
