E-Paper
Centre unveils ₹1 lakh-cr budget for J&K
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
The central government allocated Rs 1 lakh crore for Jammu and Kashmir in the first annual budget for the new Union Territory on Tuesday.
As the Union Territory (UT) doesn’t have an elected government, the finance ministry presented a budget of Rs 101,428 crore for FY2020-21 in Parliament.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman pointed out that it was the “highest allocation”, adding that it was also the first time that the J&K budget crossed the Rs 1-lakh-crore mark.
The budgetary proposals and demand for grants are likely to come up for vote in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
The Centre revoked Article 370, which gave special status to J&K, on August 5 and bifurcated it into two UTs – Jammu and Kashmir with a legislative assembly and Ladakh without one. The UT of Jammu and Kashmir came into effect on October 31.
In the absence of a state government, Parliament takes the responsibility to approve the budget for a state or Union Territory.
Sitharaman underlined that about Rs 38,000 crore has been earmarked for various development schemes, which is an increase of 27% from the last year. She added that J&K can have an economic growth of 11%, the fastest among states and UTs.
The capital expenditure has been pegged at Rs 23,910 crore while revenue expenses stood at Rs 31,406 crore.
The government also presented a separate expenditure plan of Rs 55,317.81 crore for the last five months of the current fiscal. The budget for J&K was laid by junior finance minister Anurag Thakur.
Sitharaman, in a statement, pointed out that the original grant for the financial year 2019-20 was Rs 88,911 crore.
“The capital component of the budget has increased substantially and the expected revenue receipts are Rs 91,100 crore whereas revenue expenditure is expected to be Rs 62,664 crore thereby making available revenue surplus for capital expenditure to the tune of Rs 28,436 crore,” Sitharaman added.
With regard to the Union Territory of Ladakh, the total budget estimates for last five months has been pegged at Rs 5,754 crore. Of this, she said, capital expenditure would be Rs 4,618.35 crore and revenue expenditure would be Rs 1,135.65 crore.
“With the abrogation of Article 370 and Re-organisation of State into Union Territory, the PoK and West Pakistan Refugees have qualified for citizenship rights which were denied to them since 1947,” she said.
