Nagaland government presents deficit Budget, proposes no new tax

KOHIMA: Without proposing any new tax, Nagaland Chief Minister T R Zeliang today presented Rs 928.86 crore deficit Budget for the fiscal 2014-15.
Presenting his maiden Budget on the opening day of assembly session here today, Zeliang, who also holds the Finance portfolio, estimated the gross receipts at Rs 12,127.59 crore and gross expenditure at Rs 12,431.57 crore.

He said the current year's transaction is estimated to result in negative balance of Rs 928.86 crore, however, because of the negative opening balance of Rs 323.59 crore, the year 2014-15 is estimated to close with a negative balance of Rs 1,252.45 crore.

He added that the negative balance included Rs 303.98 crore excess expenditure from the current transaction and Rs 624.88 crore for public accounts.

Informing the House that the Centre is yet to finalise the plan outlay of the state, he however said, the government decided to proceed with the tentative state plan outlay of Rs 2,300 crore, an increase of nearly 10 per cent over the last year's outlay of Rs 2,100 crore.

"I do not propose any new taxes in this Budget," he said, however, maintaining that the revenue generated within the state needs to be augmented even without increasing the tax rates.

"This would be possible only when we effectively plug evasion," the CM said.

Proposing new steps towards this direction, he said the first is to fix circle rates for property so the ad valorem stamp duty is levied on such minimum property rates.

He also proposed to amend relevant rules for compulsory billing and digitisation of sale transaction as receipts from sales tax are increased.

Agriculture being the main stay for the state, the government allocated Rs 154.79 crore to agri and allied sectors.

He said the government is presently focusing on increasing productivity and moving towards the committed target of "Food for All" by 2025.

The general and economic service sectors have been provided with Rs 639.81 crore while the social services sector has been allocated Rs 445.09 crore.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister informed the House that the state government has appealed to the central government for a one time grant of Rs 1,234.45 crore for wiping off the huge cumulative deficit so that the state could start from zero deficit.

"I have enormous hope on the Union Government that the request would be sympathetically considered," the CM added.