Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy on Thursday presented a budget of ₹6,945 crore for the fiscal 2017-18 without announcing any new taxes.
Although the government left the tax structure unchanged, it has proposed a cess on power to promote environment-friendly and renewable energy sources.
Amid protest by All India N.R. Congress and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Amma faction) over non-implementation of poll promises, Mr. Narayanasamy presented the annual financial statement with an outlay of ₹4,445 crore for non-Plan and ₹2,500 crore for Plan.
The contribution from own resources was estimated to be ₹4,022 crore, the Central Assistance was estimated to be ₹1,411 crore, the anticipated grants from Centrally Sponsored Schemes was estimated to be ₹361 crore and the remaining ₹1,151 crore would be raised from open market and financial institutions.
Of the outlay, salaries account for ₹1,650.40 crore, pension ₹663.37 crore, interest and repayment of loans ₹1,112.88 crore and power purchase ₹1,012. 99 crore. The government had earmarked ₹347 crore towards repayment of loans availed in 2007-08.
The Chief Minister in his budget speech said repeated appeals to the Centre to waive off legacy loans availed before separation of public account and for additional grant against the shortfall in non-Plan grant over a period of years had not yielded any results.
GST roll out
Over 80% of the dealers had enrolled for migration to Goods and Services Tax regime through the help desk and special camps organised by the Commercial Taxes Department.
The IT infrastructure for GST has been put in place. To encourage tax collectors, the government has decided to give incentives to those who collect more tax than the fixed target.
With focus now shifting to uplift of people living in non-urban areas, the Chief Minister had announced the government’s decision to provide free electricity to motor pump sets used by farmers. The government had decided to bear the expenditure towards farmer’s share of the insurance premium under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojan.’ In the last fiscal, 8,881 farmers who raised paddy on 7,362 hectares were given an insurance cover for ₹31.08 crore
The farmer’s share of premium and State contribution of ₹1. 64 crore had been remitted to the National Agricultural Insurance Company to provide coverage for samba crop. The government proposed to provide insurance cover for samba and navarai crops covering 12,500 hectares.
The government has proposed to improve the condition of village ponds at a cost of ₹174.33 crore through commune panchayats in Puducherry and Karaikal regions.
