The Madhya Pradesh government on Wednesday presented a budget of Rs 3.14 lakh crore for the financial year 2023-24. The ruling BJP government in the state has made a provision of eight thousand crores in the budget for ‘Mukhya Mantri Ladli Bahna Yojana’.
Assembly elections are going to be held in the state by the end of this year. In view of this, this announcement is being considered important. On the other hand, the opposition Congress walked out of the assembly on the issue of increase in the prices of cooking gas cylinders (LPG).
State Finance Minister Jagdish Deora did not announce any new tax in the budget presented in the assembly. He called it a ‘people’s budget’. According to a government official, the Ladli Bahna scheme will be implemented in the state from March 5. Under this scheme, women who do not pay income tax will be given assistance of Rs 1,000 per month.
Deora said that in the budget Rs 36,950.16 crore for Scheduled Tribes (Sub Plan), Rs 2,60,86.81 crore for Scheduled Castes (Sub Plan), Rs 11,406 crore for setting up government primary schools, Rs 6,728 for secondary schools crore and a provision of Rs 7,332 crore has been made under the National Rural Drinking Water Mission.
He said that apart from this, there is a provision of Rs 6,935 crore to provide assistance for necessary reforms as per the 15th Finance Commission. Deora presented the state budget amidst uproar and walkout by opposition Congress members over the hike in LPG cylinder prices. He said, ‘The total investment amount is Rs 3,14,024.84 crore, which is 13 percent more than the previous year and the total net expenditure is Rs 2,81,553.62 crore.’
The minister said that keeping in mind the self-reliant Madhya Pradesh, various schemes have been prepared in the form of missions in the budget. Describing it as the public’s budget, he said that efforts have been made to involve the public in preparing the budget by obtaining their suggestions through various means. He said that the revenue surplus in the budget is Rs 412.76 crore and the fiscal deficit is estimated to be 4.02 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product.
Referring to the estimated revenue receipts, the minister said, “The estimated revenue receipts are Rs 2,25,709.90 crore, of which the state’s own tax amount is Rs 86,499.98 crore, the state’s share of central taxes is Rs 80,183.67 crore, non-tax revenue is Rs 14,913.10 crore and central 44,113.15 crore is included in the grant-in-aid received from
As Deora began reading out the budget proposals, Congress members including former finance minister Tarun Bhanot, Vijay Laxmi Sadho and Jitu Patwari created ruckus in the House over the LPG price hike issue. After this, Congress members led by former Chief Minister Kamal Nath walked out of the House.
Bhanot told reporters, ‘The central government has increased the price of LPG cylinder by Rs 50, commercial cylinder by Rs 350, due to which people will have to face a lot of difficulties.’ He demanded that the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Madhya Pradesh, like the Rajasthan government, should provide LPG cylinders at Rs 500 per (below poverty line people). The Congress members also staged a sit-in in front of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the assembly premises on the issue of hike in LPG cylinder prices.
