The Punjab government on Friday presented a Rs 1.54 lakh crore budget for the financial year 2020-21 in the state assembly.
ਇਸ ਮੌਕੇ ਮੁਲਾਜ਼ਮਾਂ ਦੀ ਸੇਵਾ-ਮੁਕਤੀ ਦੀ ਉਮਰ 60 ਸਾਲ ਤੋਂ ਘਟਾ ਕੇ 58 ਸਾਲ ਕਰ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਹੈ। ਖ਼ਜ਼ਾਨਾ ਮੰਤਰੀ ਨੇ ਕਿਹਾ ਕਿ ਅਜਿਹਾ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਵਿੱਤੀ ਹਾਲਤ ਠੀਕ ਹੋਣ ਕਾਰਨ ਕੀਤਾ ਹੈ।
Presenting the budget, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal announced debt waiver to landless farm labourers and added that a sum of Rs 520 crore has been set aside for the same.
Badal announced six per cent dearness allowance to the state government employees from March this year and said the government will implement the 6th Pay Commission recommendations in 2020-21.
Badal further said ‘mandi fee’ — the fee levied on the sale and purchase of agriculture produce — on fruits and vegetables will be reduced from four per cent to one per cent.
The minister also announced to waive Change of Land Use (CLU) charges for two years.
In the budget, Badal proposed revenue receipts of Rs 88,004 crore and revenue expenditure of Rs 95,716 crore for fiscal year 2020-21.
Here are the highlights from Punjab’s Budget presentation:
ਪੰਜਾਬ ‘ਚ ਨਵੀਂ ਭਰਤੀਆਂ ਜਲਦ ਕਰਾਂਗੇ: ਮਨਪ੍ਰੀਤ ਬਾਦਲ
ਬਿਨਾਂ ਜ਼ਮੀਨ ਵਾਲੇ ਖੇਤ ਮਜ਼ਦੂਰਾਂ ਦਾ ਕਰਜ਼ਾ ਮੁਆਫ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ 520 ਕਰੋੜ ਰੁਪਏ ਰੱਖੇ ਰਾਖਵੇਂ
Freedom fighters to get one out of turn tubewell connection; three per cent reservation in house allotment; they are not to pay any toll tax on state highways.
Rs 650 crore for rejuvenation of Buddha nallah; Rs 60 crore for rejuvenation of chotti and badi nadi in Patiala
5,000 EWS houses to be built for urban poor
Rs 1,705 crore for providing subsidised power to SCs, BPL and freedom fighters
Rs 100 crore for Border Area Development and Kandi Area Development programme
Allocation for education (grant in aid) in Universities increased by 6 per cent.
A law college to be set up at Patti and an open university in Patiala
19 new ITIs to be established at a cost of Rs 75 crore; Rs 41 crore allocated for government polytechnics at 5 places.
Rs 15 crore allotted for ICUs in all district hospitals.
Ludhiana and Amritsar get Rs 104 crore and Rs 76 crore under smart city project
4,150 additional classrooms to be constructed at a cost of Rs 100 crore.
Rs 75 crore allotted for repair of unsafe school buildings
259 government senior secondary smart schools to get 10 KW solar plants.
Rs 100 crore allotted for digital education in government school classroom
Education in government schools would be free of cost up to class 12. Earlier, education up till class 8 was free and only girls students had free access to education till class 12. Now all children to get free education.
Rs 25 crore allotted for starting the celebration for the 400th birth anniversary of Guru Teg Bahadur
Funding of social security scheme increased from Rs 2,165 crore to Rs 2,388 crore.
Old age homes to be set up in each district of Punjab
Rs 131 crore for up-gradation of all industrial focal points
Rs 2,267 crore for providing power subsidy to industry
Rs 148 crore for skill development
Rs 25 crore allocated for the strengthening of cattle pound infrastructure to solve the problem of stray cattle menace
Rs 100 crore for rolling out the smartphones for youth scheme
Rs 324 crore allocated for employment generation
Rs 2,000 crore allocated for crop loan waiver, including Rs 520 crore for farm labourers
Rs 200 crore allocated for agriculture diversification. Government to promote Maize; sugar mills at Gurdaspur and Batala to be upgraded. Rs 100 crore allocated for providing support to sugarcane farmers.
New horticulture estates to be set up at Amritsar, Pathankot, Kotkapura and Patiala.
Power subsidy of Rs 8,275 allocated to farmers in 2020-21
Two new agricultural colleges to be set up in Gurdaspur and Balachaur
‘Paani bachao paisa kamao’ scheme to be extended for giving direct benefit transfer of electricity to the agriculture sector. Scheme to be extended to cover 244 feeders.
Rs 3,830 crore allocated for Rural development, Urban development gets Rs 5,026 crore.
Badal says that 16 state government departments have prepared a 4-year strategic action plan and release of funds to these departments will be based on this.
The agriculture sector gets Rs 12,526 crore allocation, while the Education sector gets Rs 13,092 crore in the budget.
Rs 4,675 crore allocated for the health sector: FM Badal
The revenue receipts of the state have increased by 18.96 per cent from 2019-2020 to 2020-21: FM Badal.
The GDSP ratio reduced from 42.75 per cent to 39.83 per cent. FM says it will further reduce to 38.53 per cent by March 2021.
Badal said that there was a funding gap of over Rs 10,000 crore in the budget in 2017. The funding gap in 2019 was 2,323 crore. He said that the gap has been reduced to zero this year. This has been possible after the year 2006.
FM has increased the expenditure on salaries and pensions by Rs 4,000 crore. This is mainly to account for releasing the pending arrears of DA and for the new pay scales to be announced.
6 per cent of DA arrears will be released within next week. The pay commission report will be implemented and has been accounted for in the budget.
Revenue receipts for 2020-21 will be Rs 95,716 crore, up from Rs 73,975 crore in 2019-2020
Farm labourers will get Rs 520 crore for debt relief in 2020-21
Punjab’s debt is expected to go up to a whopping Rs 2.48 lakh crore by March 2021.
FM announced that the retirement age of employees will be reduced to 58, withdrawing the practice of giving extension in service. He says this will enable the government to recruit youth.
Manpreet Singh Badal started his Budget Speech.
Manpreet Singh reaches Punjab Assembly after a delay because of the gherao of his house by SAD leaders.
