The Punjab Finance Minister, Harpal Singh Cheema, unveiled the state’s budget for 2023-24 in the assembly on Friday, with a focus on agriculture, education, and health.
The budget size has been increased by 26% to Rs 1,96,462 crore for 2023-24 over the previous year. This is the first full budget of the government.
No new taxes have been imposed in the state budget focused on agriculture, health and education.
The Finance Minister announced several key proposals, including Rs 13,888 crore for agriculture and allied sectors, a new agriculture policy, Rs 1,000 crore for crop diversification, and a risk mitigation crop insurance scheme.
The government has also allocated Rs 125 crore for direct sowing of paddy and moong crop purchase and set up a revolving fund for Basmati crop purchase. The budget includes a free power subsidy of Rs 9,331 crore for the farm sector.
In the health sector, 10.50 lakh people have been treated in ‘Aam Aadmi Clinics’ in the state so far.
The government has allocated Rs 18 crore for OBC students and Rs 60 crore for SC students for providing Pre-Matric scholarships. The budget also includes an allocation of Rs 35 crore for the construction, up-gradation, and strengthening of sports infrastructure and Rs 2 crore for the strengthening and upgradation of Urdu Academy, Malerkotla.
The budget proposes a sum of Rs 74,620 crore towards committed expenditure and Rs 11,782 crore towards effective capital expenditure, a 12% and 22% increase, respectively, in comparison to the previous fiscal year. The effective revenue deficit and fiscal deficit have been pegged at 3.32% and 4.98% of the gross state domestic product (GSDP), respectively.
The government had passed a vote-on account on March 22, 2022, and then presented its budget in June for the remaining part of the year after coming to power in March 2022. The Finance Minister reported a 30% drop in stubble burning incidents. Additionally, the Bhagwant Mann government has provided 26,797 jobs so far.
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