The Madhya Pradesh government is expected to scrap or merge as many as 100 to 125 schemes in its budget on the session beginning March 16 to free up resources to fund its social sector schemes, finance department officials said.
The state government recently formed four groups of officials to give suggestions on schemes in the areas of energy, infrastructure, social sector, agriculture, education and health. A fifth group was formed to give suggestions on revenue generation.
An official from the state finance department, who didn’t want to be named, said, “In all, 100 to 125 schemes have been identified. We are working on which schemes may be scrapped and which can be merged with the other ones.”
To be sure, the exercise is not unusual considering that schemes are scrapped, merged or rechristened whenever there is a change in government. In 2018, the Congress replaced the Bharatiya Janata Party, which ruled the state for 15 years.
A second official added: “There are certain schemes like the rooftop solar project. The central government too is giving subsidies on such schemes. Hence, it is under consideration if this should be scrapped. The state government is looking at all areas to identify such schemes, the scrapping or merger of which with other schemes will not affect the government’s popularity and help it to save revenue.”
This person added that the aim is to “generate revenue for farm loan waivers, employment schemes for young people, managing cow shelters and implementing several social welfare schemes”.
{{/usCountry}}This person added that the aim is to “generate revenue for farm loan waivers, employment schemes for young people, managing cow shelters and implementing several social welfare schemes”.
{{/usCountry}}He said that the new power subsidy scheme, Naya Savera, “alone has cost the state exchequer about Rs 18,000 crore annually.”
The state government proposed budget size of Rs 2,28,888 crore in 2019-20 budget, a 20% increase from the previous financial year.
“There is a revenue shortfall of about Rs 30,000 crore this year given the fact the central government has cut the share of the state in the central taxes by over Rs 14,000 crore while the state government’s revenue collection has also taken a hit of about Rs 10,000 crore because of slowdown in economy. Though the increase in revenue through sand mining, excise policy, increase in VAT [value added tax] on petrol and diesel will help the government to some extent, it’s not possible to manage the expenditure without scraping or merging various schemes,” the second official added.
The official said the government has not worked out how much money it will save by scrapping or merging the scheme saying that mathematics was being worked out.
State finance minister, Tarun Bhanot, couldn’t be reached for his comments.
However, state Congress spokesperson Bhupendra Gupta, said, “Given the fact the then BJP government left empty coffers for the Congress government, we are looking for sources to increase the revenues to run schemes, including social welfare ones. However, we will make all efforts to see that there is no burden on the common man due to revenue increase exercise.”
State BJP spokesperson, Rahul Kothari, said, “There is no dearth of money with the government when it comes to renovation of ministers’ bungalows, their foreign tours and extravaganza like IIFA award function to be organised this month. But when it comes to giving relief to people, the government starts crying about empty coffers.”