Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma Tuesday tabled a Rs 1,223 crore tax-free, deficit budget in the Assembly for 2019-2020.
Sangma, who holds the Finance portfolio, said the government has accorded highest priority to improve revenue collection and a committee has been set up to methodically look into all issues of collections.
The government has also given priority to human development and health, besides livelihood programmes and improvement of connectivity.
The government intends to set up IT-enabled systems for weighing of vehicles at gates and QR codes for transport challans in the next fiscal year to improve tax collections which are estimated at Rs 2,090 crore for tax revenue and Rs 601 crore for non-tax revenue, Sangma said.
He said the new GST regime has started to stabilise and has contributed to the ease of doing business.
The government has also created a window agency for ease of doing business and it approved 59 projects with investments of Rs 2,830 crore and providing employment to 2,525 youths, the chief minister said.
He informed the Assembly that the government is in the process of planning the Meghalaya Integrated Transport Sector Project with an external aid of Rs 1,050 crore.
The project will integrate all modes of transports
road, rail, air, water and urban transport.
The chief minister said the state government has submitted a memorandum to the 15th Finance Commission for the 2020-2025 period and expects a favourable award from it.
Sangma said the state's GSDP at current market rate is about Rs 32,972 crore as per advance estimates, an increase of over 10 per cent as compared to the preceding financial year.
The state's total receipts for 2019-20 is estimated at Rs 16,199 crore of which the revenue receipts are estimated at Rs 14,438 crore and capital receipts at Rs 1,761 crore, Sangma informed the Assembly.
Excluding borrowings, the total receipts are estimated to be Rs 14,463 crore while the estimated expenditure is pegged at Rs 16,202 crore during 2019-20, he said, adding that the revenue expenditure is estimated at Rs 13,700 crore and capital expenditure at Rs 2,502 crore.
The chief minister said the estimated total expenditure is Rs 15,786 crore excluding repayment of Rs 416 crore loans.
The collection is expected to touch Rs 1478 crore by year end indicating a 15 per cent growth.
The chief minister said the state government has submitted a memorandum to the 15th Finance Commission for the period 2020-2025 and expects a favourable award from it.
He said the growth of tertiary sector is registered at 11.41 per cent, the secondary sector at 11.16 per cent and primary sectors at 3.88 per cent over the period of 2017-18 while the per capita income for the year 2018-19 stands at Rs 94,556 against Rs 87,500 in the preceding year.
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