Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla on Thursday presented the annual budget for the current fiscal amounting to Rs 3,687.39 crore with an estimated deficit of Rs 57.45 crore in the State assembly.
Lal Thanhawla, who also holds finance portfolio, did not propose fresh taxes and revision of tax rates saying that his government would try to bring efficiency in the tax regime to ensure overall improvement in tax collection.
The break-up of the budget is Rs 2,211.31 crore under non-plan, Rs 1,293.78 under plan, Rs 35.40 under North Eastern Council (NEC) and Rs 146.90 under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS).
The chief minister said that the New Land Use Policy (NLUP), the flagship programme of the Congress government in the state was given the highest priority and programme formulated to uplift 1.2 lakh families by giving financial assistance during five years.
“Rs 1,200 crore is projected for the family oriented scheme component in addition to Rs 1,250 crore for infrastructure development, information, education communication, supply of inputs, processing and marketing of produce,” he said.
Mr. Lal Thanhawla made special mention that provision for increased salary of government employees in accordance with the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission was made in the budget estimates and the total salary expenditure was estimated at Rs 1,240.16 crore, which is 32.07 per cent of the total expenditure.
Mr. Lal Thanhawla also increased the MLA’s Area Development Fund from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 25 lakh per constituency. The total expenditure under the scheme was Rs 10 Crore for the 40 assembly constituencies.
Earlier, the chief minister was compelled to seek vote-on-account two times due to non-finalisation of the State annual plan outlay by the Planning Commission till the early part of August.
