Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein, who also holds the Finance portfolio, on Monday presented a Rs 644.81 crore deficit Budget for the financial year 2022-23, giving more thrust on areas such as agriculture, horticulture, health, education and infrastructure development.
Delivering his Budget speech in the State Assembly, Mein said, “This (Covid) pandemic has taught us many lessons. I have tried to assimilate our collective experiences in this budget as building blocks so as to make ‘Arunachal future ready’.
These six building blocks are: i) Governance reform and prudent financial management, ii) sustained investment in the health sector, iii) continued investment in human capital, iv) emphasis on Atma Nirbhar Arunachal, v) synergy and convergence, and vi) environment protection and climate resilience.”
Highlighting the current financial position of the state, the Deputy Chief Minister said, “In the Budget Estimates (BE) of the year 2022-23, we are projecting revenue receipts of Rs 24,253.54 crore and capital receipts of Rs 1,858.09 crore, making total receipts of Rs 26,111.63 crore, which is 15.64 percent higher than the total estimated receipts of Rs 22,581.00 crore in BE 2021-22.
The total receipts increased to Rs 26,131.00 crore in Revised Estimates (RE) of 2021-22.” “The State’s share of Central taxes has been pegged at Rs 14,348.54 crore as per Union Budget 2022-23.
It is a significant 10% more than the RE 2021-22. In addition, we have projected the State’s own tax revenue at Rs 2,090 crore,” he said. The non-tax revenue for FY 2022-23 is estimated at Rs 935 crore. Thus, the State’s estimated own revenue generation is Rs 3,025 crore during 2022-23 which is also 10 percent more than the revised estimates for 2021-22, he added.
The budget projected a revenue expenditure of Rs 18,201.55 crore as against the Budget Estimates of Rs 15,344.32 crore in 2021-22. The revenue expenditure is estimated at Rs 17,695.89 crose in revised estimates of 2021-22.
“In the Budget Estimate of 2022-23, the Capital Expenditure including loan components is estimated at Rs 7,507.81 crore as against BE of Rs 6,968.68 crore in 2021-22, which is an increase of 7.74 percent. The capital expenditure is estimated at Rs 8,014.01 crore in RE of 2021-22.
The focus of the Government has been and will be on increasing capital expenditure to create socially and economically productive assets for accelerated development of the State,” he said.
Later talking to reporters, Mein said the basic philosophy of this Budget is: “No citizen left behind”. The Budget also focuses on entrepreneurship in all sectors, start-up policy, and maiden front-end subsidy for Self-Help Groups (SHGs), particularly the women SHGs, he said.
He informed that land acquisition for the state’s largest hydroelectric project, 2880 MW Dibang Multipurpose Project, has been completed and its construction work is “about to start”.
He further informed that 29 hydropower projects with generating capacity of 32,000 MW allotted to various private developers “are being terminated and will be handed over to Central PSUs” which will involve about Rs four lakh crore-investment.
Mein also said two units of the Subansiri Lower project with 500-MW capacity would be commissioned this year while the entire project will be commissioned next year, generating 2,000 MW thereby making it the biggest hydropower project in the country.
Like previous years, the Deputy Chief Minister also presented separately the Gender Budget, ULB (Urban Local Bodies) Budget and Child Budget for the fiscal year 2022-23.
