The Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi Government on Tuesday presented an estimated budget of Rs.37,750 crore for the next financial year (2015-16) while seeking a vote-on-account to authorise the government to meet essential expenditure during the first three months of the coming fiscal. The full-fledged budget will be presented in June.
Presenting the budget at a specially convened two-day session at the Delhi Vidhan Sabha, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the Finance portfolio, said the budget, in its entirety, included Rs. 15,350 crore for plan expenditure, Rs. 21,500 crore for non-plan expenditure and Rs. 900 crore for Centrally-sponsored schemes.
“The proposed total expenditure will be financed mainly from our own tax revenue to the extent of Rs. 32,641 crore, Rs. 1,327 crore from non-tax revenue, Rs. 681 crore from capital receipts and Rs. 900 crore from small savings loan. It also includes Rs 325 crore as Delhi’s share in Central taxes and Rs. 395 crore as Normal Central Assistance and Rs 900 crore as Centrally- sponsored schemes,” Mr. Sisodia said.
The Deputy Chief Minister minced no words as he went on to attribute a deficit of Rs. 4,500 crore during 2014-15 to mismanagement of funds by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) Central Government during almost a year of President's Rule.
He also brought to the notice of the Assembly that the non-plan grant in lieu of Delhi's share in Central taxes and duties, proposed at Rs. 325 crore for the next financial year in the Union Budget, had remained stagnant over the last 14 years.
When questioned by the BJP's Vijender Gupta, MLA from Rohini and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly, about his Government’s decision to present a “delayed” vote-on-account instead of a full-fledged budget which has traditionally been tabled by mid-March, Mr. Sisodia attributed the same to an innovative approach deliberately chosen by his Government.
“A handful of ministers, legislators and bureaucrats huddled in a closed room can make a budget which looks rosy only on paper – which is precisely what we want to change,” Mr. Sisodia replied.
“To honour the historic mandate that the people of Delhi have given us, we want to bring the process of making a budget out of closed rooms and off voluminous files; we are presenting a vote-on-account because we want to give public a larger voice in making it,” he said adding that the Government intended to have a fresh look into the complete budgetary process and prepare a plan for optimum utilisation of the resources at its disposal.
The Deputy CM also pointed out that the budget utilisation had remained on the lower side this fiscal year with about 61 per cent of the planned budget spent till February. The revenue receipts of the government had also declined and, accordingly, the budget had been reduced from Rs. 36,766 crore in estimates to Rs. 34,790 crore in the revised estimate. In order to give effect to these, Mr. Sisodia said, supplementary demands for grants amounting to Rs.351.98 crore were laid before the House for approval.
The House also passed an amendment to the Value Added Tax (VAT) Act allowing the traders to carry forward their credit for the successive financial years. Moving the proposal for the amendment, Mr. Sisodia said the Capital's traders were facing difficulty in claiming refund of input tax before the end of each financial year.
