Puducherry CM Presents Budget 2023 on March 13: Key Highlights

N Rangasamy, the Chief Minister of Puducherry and Minister of Finance, on March 13th 2023 (Monday) presented the 11,600 crore rupee budget for 2023–2024 to the Territorial Assembly. The budget focused more on households, farmers, IT and girls.

Lieutenant. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan gave the usual opening address to the budget session on March 9. Agriculture and education were given additional attention in the current budget, which is crucial given the current circumstances.

The budget size has been set at 11,600 crores, of which the Union Territory’s own resources account for 6,154.54 crores, normal central assistance, including the disaster fund, for 3,117.77 crores, and 620 crores as Centrally Sponsored Schemes, according to CM.

The Key highlights of the budget are:

1. Subsidy of ₹300 per month for 12 LPG cylinders in a year for all family ration card-holders in the Union Territory
2. 1% subsidy on the purchase of land and machinery for unemployed youth to start industrial units
3. Fixed deposit scheme of ₹50,000 for a newborn girl
4. Corpus fund of ₹2 crores for a ‘Traders Welfare Association.’
5. Incur the premium for the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (accident insurance scheme) for all red ration cardholders.
6.  IT Park in Puducherry with the assistance of the Software Technology Park of India.
7. Funds to set up a new Anti-Human Trafficking Unit and procure new vehicles
8. 2500 beneficiary lead construction houses will be completed Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana urban scheme

Beyond these highlights, the budget included the fund allocation for school education. Also, the scheme for the cultivation of millets is proposed to be implemented in the  International year of millets 2023  to encourage farmers to cultivate millets.

Further 175.07 crores are earmarked for the water supply scheme under the AMRUT programme. Under the Smart City mission, an estimated amount of 55.90 crore works in urban areas are under progress.

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