7% higher DA gift to govt staff, pensioners on Puja

The state cabinet on Friday increased the dearness allowance of government employees, pensioners and family pensioners from the present 65% to 72% with retrospective effect from July 1, 2012.

This will put an additional burden of Rs. 575.84 crore on the exchequer,h said principal secretary, planning and development and also in-charge of cabinet coordination department, Vijay Prakash.

In another important decision, the cabinet exempted newsprint from entry tax. It also reduced entry tax on raw tobacco, used in manufacturing of cigarettes, from the present 8% to 4% to boost production and processing in cigarette manufacturing units in the state.

The cabinet approved borrowings to the tune of Rs. 10970.48 crore from various sources, of which Rs. 5735.60 crore would be from the market.

Prakash said the borrowings were approved to finance the annual plan of Rs. 28,000 crore in the current fiscal.

The cabinet sanctioned Rs. 100 crore in the current fiscal for integrated dairy development, combining some of the schemes of the Centre, which provides 25% of the funds.

Farmers would utilise the fund to buy milch cattle, set up vermin-compost plants, gobar gas plants, milk cooler plants and for insurance of the cattle, said Prakash.

The cabinet also sanctioned Rs. 4 crore towards meeting establishment costs and other expenses of the Chandragupt Institute of Management, Patna and Rs. 3.04 crore for implementing the ‘e-court mission mode’ in all judicial circles of the state.

The cabinet also approved a proposal to observe the birth anniversary of a freedom fighter of Samastipur, Satya Narayan Sinha, on July 9 every year as an official function.