Best and most inclusive Budget till date: Arunachal Pradesh CM

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu today hailed the Union Budget 2017 as "one of the best and inclusive till date" which will particularly boost infrastructural and economic growth of the country, including that of the north-eastern states.
He appreciated the "visionary" leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for advancing the budget presentation to February 1 to enable Parliament to avoid a Vote on Account and pass a single Appropriation Bill for 2017-18 before the close of the current financial year and departments to implement schemes and projects right from the start of the next financial year.

Another "historic" step was the merger of the Railway Budget with the General Budget, Khandu said.
This, he said, would facilitate multi-modal transport planning between the railways, highways and inland waterways, an official release said.
"The most significant change brought by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget, however, is doing away with the plan and non-plan classification of expenditure," the chief minister said.
Expressing optimism that north-east in general and Arunachal Pradesh in particular will surely benefit from some of the announcements, one of them being the allocation of a whopping amount of Rs 19,000 crore for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) for this fiscal.

Together with the contribution of the states, an amount of Rs 27,000 crore would be spent on PMGSY in 2017-18.

"To accelerate development in our state, connectivity is of utmost importance.
The Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister also hailed the
increased allocation of Rs 31,920 crore for Scheduled Tribes and of Rs 4,195 crore for Minority Affairs.
Other salient features of Budget 2017 which Khandu said would prove to be "path-breaking" are the focus on MGNREGA, agriculture, railway infrastructure, air connectivity to two-tier cities, tourism and enhanced allocation for the poor and underprivileged and the Sports Ministry.
Khandu specifically hailed the Centre's determination to curb corruption and black money hoarding, besides cleansing the menace of political funding.

As per the new announcements, the maximum amount of cash donation for a political party will be Rs 2,000 from any one source only by cheque or digital mode of payments.
"The budget has also barred cash transactions of above Rs 3 lakh and slashed Income Tax rates.
"The government is also moving to abolish the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), while FDI is getting a big makeover," Khandu observed and asserted that the budget had covered all the aspects with minute details which will usher in a new age of development, the release added.