Rajasthan Budget seeks to give 'something' to all

Raje proposed to make tobacco products costlier by increasing VAT by 15%

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje today presented the state's budget for 2017-18, pegging the fiscal deficit at Rs 2,4753.53 crore or 2.99 per cent of the GSDP and claiming it has "something for everyone".

While projecting a revenue of Rs 1,30,162 crore for the state in 2017-18, she said, "We had inherited a debt-ridden economy. But, accepting the challenges we have worked for the development of state. The coming years are full of challenges.

"But, we will continue to work with high spirits. The proposed budget has something for everyone."

Amid the rising demands for quota in state jobs and educational institutions to the poor among the upper caste people, Raje proposed a financial aid of Rs 25,000 to each of the general category poor students who get admissions in medical colleges, IITs and NLUs and Rs 50,000 to those who are selected for administrative services.

While expressing her government's resolve to implement the Central Good and Services Tax in 2017-18, Raje also sought to provide much-needed water to over 41 lakh people of 2,039 villages in her state by installing state-of-art 1,480 reverse osmosis plants there.

She proposed to make the tobacco products costlier by increasing the Value Added Tax on these items by 15 per cent, even while leaving it intact on other things.

The fiscal deficit for 2017-18 with the impact of Ujawal DISCOM Assurance Yojna (UDAY) - the central government's state electricity distribution utility revival scheme - has been estimated to Rs 13,528 crore, which was Rs 43,147 crore in the 2016-17 budget.

The total revenue from taxes which was Rs 59,455 crore in 2016-17, is estimated to be 16.16 per cent equaling Rs 69,062 crore in 2017-18 budget.

The budget largely sought to boost development of basic infrastructure including roads, water, tourism and industries besides social justice and employment.

In her budget, Raje proposed to spend Rs 1,200 crore on "development of 'Gaurav Path' and missing links" besides building and renovating 5000 km of rural roads at a cost of Rs 800 crore and earmarking Rs 580 crore to spend on 15 projects of state highways development.

The budget also allocated nearly Rs 16 crore to maintain air strips in the state, she announced.

For development of tourism in the state, which registered a rise of over 17.31 per cent tourists arrival in 2016-17, the budget allocated Rs 88 crore, with a provision of another Rs 36 crore for developing tourists facilities.

Another sum of Rs 36 crore was allocated for basic infra, conservation, beautification and renovation works at various tourist places in the state.

Other highlights of the budget included Rs 5,600 crore for home department, which is 11.80 per cent more than the previous year.

Raje announced that block headquarters would be connected with fibre and eight lakh people would be given IT training in 2017-18.

The budget also allocated Rs 158.63 crore for art, culture and archaeology department, raising the allocation by 49.42 per cent over the revised estimates of 2016-17.

Allocating Rs 1,399 crore for the higher education, the budget envisaged opening two new engineering colleges in Karauli and Bharatpur.