MP Budget session begins today

The Budget session of the state assembly will begin tomorrow here.

Speaking to Business Standard, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said his priority would be the welfare of the social sector and the tribals in the forthcoming state budget.

“I want a larger portion of the budget to go to the schedule castes and schedule tribe population while the rest for social sector schemes like ‘Ladli Laxmi Yojana’ in the interest of the girl child. I also want to make agriculture a profitable business and channel power subsidy, loan waiver and creation of additional agriculture facilities in the state will get a fair share in the budget,” Chouhan said.

If sources are to be believed, “The size of the budget in terms of expenditure is likely to touch Rs 60,000 crore against Rs 51,507 crore of the previous year as all taxes collections have surged handsomely”.

The chief minister, however said, farm sector was a major concern as this year’s frost has badly hit rabi crops. “Crops like tur have been badly hit in almost all areas, the centre has not supported us financially as a result, I have earmarked an allocation of Rs 883 crore to compensate the farmers with minimum compensation of Rs 500 and maximum of Rs 11,000 per hectare. This would surely put a strain on the budget,” he said.

State Finance Minister Ragahvji said, “Our budget will continue with fiscal reforms but the sixth pay commission recommendations have increased the size of our non-plan expenditure which is already touching Rs 30,000 crore. However, we are well within the norms of fiscal deficit to gross state domestic production. “ The major portion of taxes which comes from value added tax has gone up by 20 per cent this year.