No new taxes in Haryana budget

28% rise in spending for FY17

No new taxes have been proposed in the Haryana government's budget for 2016-17, despite the additional burden of the financial rescue package for power distribution companies and implementation of the pay commission recommendations.

The total budget estimate of Rs 69,140 crore for 2015-16 is proposed to be increased by 28 per cent to Rs 88,782 crore in 2016-17. Plan expenditure of Rs 40,256 crore (45.3 per cent) of this.
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Presenting his second budget to the legislative assembly on Monday, Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu proposed to cut tax from 12.5 per cent to five per cent on sale of electrical vehicles.This and various other tax concessions will entail a loss of about Rs 50 cr to the exchequer. Relief in respect of tax, interest, penalty and other dues to registered dealers whose goods were lost or destroyed in the recent Jat reservation agitation has also been included.

 

Own taxes as a percentage of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) rose from 6.3 in 2014-15 to 6.9 in 2015-16. Under the revised estimates for 2015-16, revenue receipts are expected to be Rs 54,167 crore, comprising tax revenue of Rs 40,436 crore and non-tax revenue of Rs 13,731 crore. Total revenue is estimated at 10.7 per cent of GSDP in FY16, against 9.2 per cent in 2014-15.

 

In the estimate for 2016-17, total revenue receipts are projected at Rs 62,956 crore, of which tax revenue is Rs 46,388 crore. Allocations for many key sectors have been raised. Agriculture and allied sectors (including irrigation, cooperatives and rural electrification subsidy) get Rs 13,494 crore. Rural development and panchayats get Rs 2,824 crore. Education (including industrial training and technical education, sports and arts & culture) gets Rs 14,305 crore. Health gets Rs 3,917 crore; social welfare, nutrition and welfare of scheduled castes and backward classes gets Rs 6,190 crore. Allocation of Rs 3,108 crore is for public health engineering, Rs 3,646 crore for urban development, Rs 2,464 crore for transport sector and Rs 4,485 crore for buildings and roads.

 

The minister outlined a series of measures to ensure tighter management of funds and to bring higher levels of transparency and accountability. These include opening of Personal Ledger Accounts instead of bank accounts by all departments, minimising non-plan expenditure by freezing the amount for contractual engagements and setting up of a debt and cash management cell in the finance department.

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