Proposing no fresh taxes in a populist budget for 2014-15, Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather on Thursday declared the agriculture and horticulture sectors fully tax-free for the next financial year.
“Most of the agriculture and horticulture related items were already tax-free. Yet we used to charge a toll tax of Rs. 65 per quintal on entry on all fertilisers followed by Valued Added Tax at 5 per cent of the price. We import hundreds of thousands of quintals of fertilizers every year. All these items have been fully exempted from all taxes,” Mr. Rather said at a news conference after presenting a ‘zero-deficit’ budget. Over five lakh families associated with the horticulture sector would benefit as all fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides and other chemicals and machinery had been removed from the list of the taxable items.
He said there would be no change in the existing levy structure as no fresh taxes had been proposed. “But, this is not in view of the elections ahead. We just don’t want to burden the people with any more taxes.”
Mr. Rather declared to have written off the red balance worth more than 2,000 cumulative loans taken from the government and the interest accrued thereon — of all the deficit-riddled Public Sector Undertaking (PSUs). He suggested that these PSUs, which have been recommended for total closure by two government committees in the last 15 years, should devise a self-sustaining mechanism without relying on the government’s budgetary support every year any more.
The Anmol Beti scheme, now operational in 97 community development blocks, has been extended to all Below the Poverty Line families throughout the State. The government deposits Rs. 5,000 in the bank account of the first girl child of a family on her admission to the 11th Standard. Mr. Rather announced 100 per cent increase in the largesse.
He said the growth rate of 5.88 per cent had been achieved in 2013-14 as against the national rate of 4.88 per cent in the GDP. He put the State’s total estimated income at Rs. 43,543 crore. The same would be the total expenditure, he said.
Mr. Rather said the State’s tax revenue increased from Rs. 2,683 crore in 2008-09 to Rs. 6,600 crore in 2013-14. Non-tax revenue went up from Rs. 837 crore to Rs. 2,160 crore. The per capita income rose from Rs. 20,212 in 2008-09 to Rs. 72,188 on constant prices and from Rs. 25,641 to Rs. 37,533 on current prices.
