Haryana Budget brings social security cover for farmers, workers

Chandigarh, Feb 25 (PTI)The Haryana government Monday announced new schemes to provide financial and social security cover to families of farmers and those of workers in the unorganised sector ahead of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls. Presenting a Rs 1.32 lakh crore budget for 2019-20 in the Assembly, State Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu said the government has not only tried to give impetus to economic growth but also tried to stabilise and strengthen the financial structure of the state.

The budget, which did not propose any new tax, has a total outlay of Rs 1,32,165.99 crore, 14.73 per cent more than the budget for 2018-19. He said the budget reflects the government's commitment to boost investment in agriculture, rural development, health, education, skill development and industrial training and social justice for comprehensive socio-economic growth of the state and allocations have been increased in these sectors.

Abhimanyu said the government proposes new schemes to provide financial and social security cover to families of farmers in possession of land of up to five acres and for the families of workers in unorganised sector with family income of less than Rs 15,000 per month. He said in case of farmers, this will be in addition to the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme announced by the Narendra Modi government.

An outlay of Rs 1,500 crore has been provided in the budget for these schemes, whose name and other modalities were being worked out, Abhimanyu told reporters later. The total budget outlay comprises 28.7 per cent as capital expenditure of Rs 37,924.09 crore and 71.3 per cent as revenue expenditure of Rs 94,241.90 crore.

The finance minister said revenue deficit to GSDP has steadily declined from 2.92 per cent in 2016-17 to 1.53 per cent in budget estimates 2019-20, whereas the effective revenue deficit has decreased from 2.81 per cent to 0.73 per cent in the same period. In 2019-20, fiscal deficit is estimated to be 2.86 per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). State debt to GSDP ratio is estimated at 22.90 per cent, which is within the limits prescribed under FRBM Act, the minister said.

On overall sectoral share, Rs 46,562.37 crore of total budget of Rs 1.32 lakh crore has been allocated to the schemes pertaining to 15 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) being implemented in the state pertaining to economic, environment and social targets. Among the new initiatives to improve the financial health of the state include the Haryana Accountability of Public Finances Bill, 2019,  which the minister said will be introduced in the current session.

The Bill, once enacted, will provide for an effective and efficient system to facilitate accountability of public finances through appropriate accounting and auditing systems in all the departments and entities receiving public money. The government also intends to constitute Haryana State Audit and Accounts Services, to facilitate better management and accountability of public finance and effective implementation of the proposed legislation.

An Output-Outcome Framework was proposed by the minister in budget 2019-20,  which he said will serve as the foundation step by providing an integrated framework for aligning public spending towards achieving the SDGs in a phased manner. Performance Linked Outlay has been introduced by the state government to ensure efficient and prudent utilization of resources, he said.

An aviation hub comprising maintenance, repair and overhauling and fixed base operation facilities, training and simulation centre, aerospace university and aerospace/defence manufacturing park is proposed to be developed in Hisar over an area of 3,500 acres. On Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal issue, Abhimanyu said the state government is committed to constructing the canal in order to get the state's share of water of river Ravi-Beas and announced to allocate Rs 100 crore for the same.

The total outstanding debt of the state has been projected at nearly Rs 1.79 lakh crore. Opposition INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala later told reporters that the budget was a catalogue of mounting debts and diminishing capital expenditure.

Congress also dubbed the budget as "directionless" and expressed concern over the "mounting debt". With his speech laced with quotes from Kautilya, Abhimanyu said though no new tax has been proposed, revenue receipt is expected to increase to Rs 82,219.41 crore in 2019-20 through efficient realisation of tax and non-tax receipts, registering growth of 7 per cent over Revised Estimates 2018-19 receipt of Rs 76,828 crore.

This includes the state's own tax receipt of Rs 51,105 crore and non-tax revenue of  Rs 10,024.95 crore. The proposed major sources of tax revenue are GST -Rs 22,750 crore, VAT- Rs 10,900 crore, Excise Duty- Rs 7,000 crore and Stamp and Registration - Rs 6,500 crore.

The government proposes to borrow up to 3 per cent of GSDP, which amounts to Rs 22,413.79 crore in 2019-20. Further, grant-in-aid from the Centre amounting to Rs 9,872.82 crore will be another major source of funding in 2019-20, Abhimanyu said. The government has allocated 26.12 per cent of total budget to economic services — agriculture and allied, irrigation and rural electrification subsidy (10.62 per cent), power (6.23 per cent), civil aviation, road and bridges (4.12 per cent), rural development and panchayats (3.83 per cent and others (3.22 per cent).

He said Haryana will strive to increase the resilience, awareness and adaptive capacity of people with respect to environmental and climate change induced challenges. As many as 100 'climate smart villages' will be established under a project titled 'Scaling-up Climate Smart Villages' approved by Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Abhimanyu informed the Assembly that under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), during 2018-19, there has been a saving of Rs 258.98 crore as a result of weeding out of ghost beneficiaries.