Delhi govt to present its budget after Holi, says deputy CM Manish Sisodia

In a meeting with the finance department, Sisodia, who took the charge of his office on Monday, discussed issues pertaining to poll promises made by the Aam Aadmi Party in the run up to recently-concluded assembly elections and asked officials to make those provisions in the budget.

The AAP government will present Delhi’s 2020-21 budget after Holi, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia said on Monday as he kicked off the budgetary exercise by holding several meetings, a day after it took oath. This year, the Holi is on March 10. In a meeting with the finance department, Sisodia, who took the charge of his office on Monday, discussed issues pertaining to poll promises made by the Aam Aadmi Party in the run up to recently-concluded assembly elections and asked officials to make those provisions in the budget.

Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia takes charge of his office, at Delhi Secretariat, in New Delhi. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

Holding another meeting with officials of the trade and taxes department, the deputy chief minister directed it to take steps to prevent tax evasion.

“Earlier, the budgetary exercise used to start from December, but as there was Delhi Assembly election, we could not do so. In the next 20-25 days, we will work hard to prepare the budget and present it after Holi,” he told reporters.

Sisodia, who holds the education portfolio in the newly-elected AAP government, held a meeting with the department officials and asked them to prepare a blueprint of a proposal which will ensure admission of those students, getting 60 per cent marks in class 12th, into college.

Apart from finance and education, he also heads the departments of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Languages, Vigilance and Services.

Last year, the AAP-led Delhi government had presented a budget with an outlay of Rs 60,000 crore.

The previous AAP government had allocated over Rs 15,000 crore to education sector in the last budget.

Allocation for entrepreneurship plans, introduction of family business curriculum, setting up of a teachers training university and an applied science university were among the various initiatives announced in the 2019-2020 budget.