C'garh lays emphasis on infra, healthcare in Rs70,059cr budget

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh today presented the Rs 70,059-crore budget for next fiscal, which seeks to give a boost to infrastructure and healthcare projects.
The chief minister also announced reducing value added tax on a number of items making goods such as dairy products, idli-dosa batter, mobile phones and cycle and its parts cheaper.
"With an outlay of Rs 70,059 crore, the budget focuses on all-round development of Chhattisgarh," Raman Singh, who is also in-charge of the Finance portfolio,said in his speech.
The state has planned to construct roads of 13,000 km length with an investment of Rs 42,000 crore over the next three years and the budget allocation for road works is Rs 6,101 crore.

The state government has also inked an MoU with the Railway Ministry for expanding its rail network.
Railway lines will be set up on three arterial routes, namely Raipur-Baloda Bazar-Jharsuguda, Ambikapur-Barvadih and Dongargarh-Kawardha-Mungeli-Bilaspur-Katghora, through public private partnership (PPP) mode, which will increase rail network by 780 kilometres in the state, he said.

"The budget also made allocations to turn Raigarh and Jagdalpur (Bastar) airstrips into airports to operate regular flights," Singh said.
Public healthcare system in Chhattisgarh will be strengthened by expanding the bed capacity by 44 per cent by setting up of 2,400 additional hospital beds.
"The Dau Kalyan Singh Hospital campus at Raipur will be developed as a super-speciality hospital with ultra-modern facilities, including the first PET-scan facility in the state. For this purpose, Rs 21 crore have been allocated," he added.

A 100-bed hospital-cum-trauma centre for Bastar region will be developed at Jagdalpur district headquarter via PPP mode and a 100-bed super-speciality hospital would also be established there with the help of National Minderal Development Corporation (NMDC), he added.
"Chhattisgarh is currently running the most inclusive health insurance scheme in the country, providing universal health insurance with cover of Rs 30,000 per year to 16 lakh families. Insurance cover under Mukhyamantri Swasthya Bima Yojana has also been enhanced to Rs 50,000," he said.
Tax concessions in VAT have been announced to ensure
relief to consumers.
"VAT will be removed from cycle and cycle parts, brooms, mops, brushes and wipers. In order to create a level playing field for local retailers competing with online retailers, VAT on mobile phones will be reduced from 14 per cent to 5 per cent," the chief minister said.

In a major tax relief for the steel industry, Singh announced reduction in VAT on iron ore, pig iron, sponge iron, iron ore pellets, ingots, billets andferro-alloysfrom 5 per cent to 2 per cent, he said.
However, the state government has proposed to increase the general rate of Value Added Tax (VAT) from 14 per cent to 14.5 per cent on unspecified goods.
The idli-dosa batter has been made VAT free in the state. The state government had also slashed VAT on ghee, paneer to promote dairy industry.
Coconut oil, which is largely used as hair oil in Chhattisgarh, has been removed from the list of edible oils.

To tackle agricultural distress due to drought, the government has offeredoptionto the drought-hit farmers to convert their crop loan into interest-free medium term loan, thereby providing a partial waiver.
"For loan aid and short-term loan interest grant to the drought-hit farmers, a provision of Rs 223 crore has been made in the budget," he said.
For the launch of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, allocation of Rs 200 crore has been made as state's share.
Prime Minister's Housing for All by 2022 Mission has received major additional support from the state exchequer in the form of additional subsidy of up to Rs 4 lakh per house, over and above the subsidy of Rs 1 lakh per house already provided for, for in-situ housing redevelopment in slums.

Vivekanand Gurukul Unnayan Yojana will be launched for all-round development of students in residential schools and hostels, with an outlay of Rs 119 crore.
The Chief Minister also announced electricity to all hitherto unelectrified 818 villages and all 9,000-plus unelectrified schools by March 2017, through project outlays totalling Rs 761 crore.
To add muscle to the counterinsurgency-operations, four new battalions of state security forces will be created under which 4000 personnel will be recruited.
The CM also cited RBI data to show that the state's overall debt-to-GDP ratio is the lowest among all states.