This story is from January 20, 2017

CM Vijay Rupani may dole out largesse in his government’s first budget on February 21

Deputy chief minister and finance minister Nitin Patel will present the state’s budget on February 21. This in going to be the first budget of Vijay Rupani government
CM Vijay Rupani may dole out largesse in his government’s first budget on February 21
Deputy chief minister and finance minister Nitin Patel will present the state’s budget on February 21. This in going to be the first budget of Vijay Rupani government
GANDHINAGAR: Deputy chief minister and finance minister Nitin Patel will present the state’s budget on February 21. This in going to be the first budget of Vijay Rupani government and the last by the current BJP government as elections are scheduled later this year. The budget session will start from February 20.
The budget is expected to be a populist one in the election year. The government is facing challenges on several fronts like Patidar reservation stir and unrest in dalit and tribal communities.
The party has already gauged the people’s mood in district and taluka panchayat polls in 2015 where it received several setbacks. To recover lost ground and to fight anti-incumbency factor, the government has no option but to offer sops to the people.
However after demonetization and likely slowdown in economic activities, the state government’s income may take a hit. So, Rupani government will have to do a balancing act of making the electorate happy with largesses and at the same time keeping the expenses under check.
The government, so far, has failed to give impetus to welfare schemes. In the three quarters — till January 13, 2017 — it has spent only 55.63% of the budgetary allocations which is little more than the last year’s spending of 48.94%.
Public welfare departments are among the laggards, spending much less than the state average. Not only the spendings are low, parking of funds by most of the departments with the Gujarat State Financial Service Ltd (GSFS) from the allocated grants is very high, which is also not a good sign. Sources close to the development said, “Currently, the total amount of parked fund is more than Rs20,000 crore and it’s likely to rise as the departments have not been able to spent even the last year’s grants which are parked with the GSFS.”
According to key sources, due to the sudden rise of income from value added tax (VAT) on petroleum products post-demonetization and payment of advance taxes till December-end, total Rs36,000 crore has been collected. However it’s expected that due to dip in commercial activities, the government may miss Rs50,500 crore VAT collection target.
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