Shiban Khaibri
At the outset, opposition members from Jammu deserve all praises to remain present in the State Assembly and not attempting to interrupt or disturb the state Finance Minister, Abdul Rahim Rather throughout his budget speech on 6th instant. In an environment of various omissions and commissions by the state government so far as governance is concerned coupled by the state reeling under the unpleasantness of problems of political nature in one form or the other, the constitutional obligation of presenting the annual budget was duly met by the Finance Minister who presented a Rs.38068 crore worth of a zero deficit budget, Rs.4215 crore more than the last fiscal, in the Assembly. The Minister has tried to offer some thing, small or marginal, to each sector and segment of the economy. He has treaded cautiously on a two way path of focusing on elections and an eagerness to rain sops with an objective of an expected reciprocity by the voter citizen in the ensuing elections for the present dispensation.
Against an estimated plummeted national growth rate of 6.5% (current 5.3%), the state is reported to have achieved a rate of 7% and is expected to grow at 8% during the year 2013-14 which is commendable in the given circumstances.
As much as over 51% amount of the total state budget would come from the Centre as against 53% last year which speaks in itself the complacency of affording no newer means of widening the revenue spectrum either by levying more direct taxes in areas and segments which could afford while on various items of use mainly of luxurious nature in the form of indirect taxes. The Minister, however, has tried to make a common housewife happy to some extent by easing VAT charges on daily use items of flour, refined flour, baisan, rice and paddy and also has proposed similar relief on common use items of woolen blankets, table cloth, bed sheets and the like. To attempt to set right to some extent their home budget, Rather had removed VAT on domestic cooking gas last year but the measure has since become redundant by the introduction of cap on the number of the cylinders used per annum. Since the main industry of the state is tourism centric, hotels, Dhabas , restaurants, food joints etc; are to continue with the tariff tax concessions for one more year with added concessions to the eating shops of mere 5% from the existing 13.5%. Likewise, the industrial sector shall be entitled to VAT remission for one more year.
Since 80% of the people are engaged in agricultural and allied activities, though the budget proposes an amount of Rs. 384 crores for these activities which include rural development even though the government proposes subsidized tractors, power tiller and other agricultural implements, still much is desired to be done in this vital sector as the state is deficient in its food production and has to rely on purchases from other states. In Jammu division, one of the main problems faced by the farming community is that of irrigation and there is no cogent policy to address this problem in the budget. That farming activity has virtually become less incentive oriented and difficult also due to host of reasons should have drawn the attention of the Finance Minister and besides the provision of electricity provided free of cost , some relief in respect of purchasing fertilizers, seeds and other inputs could have boosted the morale of the farming community. In the area of dairy farming where the state especially Kashmir division needs special attention is totally missing in this budget. However exemption of stamp duty on a loan up to a limit of Rs.1.50 lac on Kissan Credit Card is a welcome step in the right direction. The demand of the farming community to introduce weather based agricultural insurance on the pattern of states like Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat to compensate the farmers on account of damage to crops due to vagaries of nature , has not found favour with the Finance Minister in the budget.
One of the main problems faced by a large segment of workers on daily wages basis has remained unresolved in the sense that the Finance Minister has indulged in a tokenism approach by increasing their wages just by Rs. 25 with a maximum of Rs. 150 per day which is half as much earned by an unskilled labourer in the state, large section of whom are from other states of the country. Not only this, they face problems even in getting their wages in time and in instances numerous, they have to wait for three to six months to get the payment. Their daily wages rate should have been at least revised upwards at around Rs. 250 when nearly 46% of the state budget, ie; Rs. 17000 crores are slated to be spent on payment of salaries to the employees and pension to state pensioners which includes the amount of Rs.700 crores for payment of two installments of the Dearness Allowance in their favour. Again, an amount of Rs. 842 crores has been kept as provision for payment of arrears on account of the recommendations of the sixth pay commission thus catering to the demands of the working employees which surely shall contribute more towards their commitment to serve the public in tune with their expectations. Since the state is reeling under massive unemployment among the educated youth, the budget has proposed to fill the vacancies in various state departments numbering anywhere between 70000 to 80000 which shall go a long way in addressing this gigantic problem .At the same time massive industrialization to solve the grave unemployment problem has to be very cautiously embarked upon as the state is prone to get caught in the quagmire of disturbing the ecological balance, pollution and environmental problems to the extent of having a telling effect on the tourism industry of the state. The scheme of SKEWPY or Sher-e- Kashmir Employment and Welfare Programme for the Youth which offers all the required help to start commercial ventures by the unemployed youth of the state is not showing the desired results even after the provision of sanctioning non refundable seed capital, has to be inquired into and remedial measures adopted to make the scheme popular. An amount of Rs.55 crores has been earmarked for the seed capital in this fiscal. Admittedly the scheme has the potential to address the unemployment problem in the state to a larger extent. One of the commendable features of the budget is the proposal of payment of honorarium of Rs. 2000 per month to the Sarpanchs and Rs. 300 to each Panch for attending meetings with a limit of Rs.600. Though the limit of honorarium is on the lower side, yet this will infuse a new hope in the Panchayati system in the state, the members of whom in the valley are bete noire for the terrorists’ psyche .
A common man has however found no innovative measures taken by the government in tackling the main problem of power, drinking water (especially in Jammu division) and roads and allied infrastructure. The government has not come up with a road map of how to augment the revenue in the Power distribution system and how to plug the wastages and loopholes. A 24 hour uninterrupted power supply has still remained a dream of the residents of the state. The cost of the establishment, ostentatious and wasteful expenditures by the government need to be addressed and there is no mention of that in the budget. Less dependency on the central grants and aid to sustain the budget needs to be reviewed and brought down with indigenous revenue receipts.
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