| Staff REPORTER |
ITANAGAR, Jul 10: The Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Wednesday passed the Rs 520.98 crore deficit Budget for the fiscal year 2019-20 following a marathon discussion on the last day of three-day House session.
Members from both treasury and opposition benches appreciated and whole-heartedly supported the Budget, which was presented by Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein, who is also the Minister in-charge of Finance, on Monday last.
Responding to the members’ observations and suggestions, he told the House that the Budget has been prepared in accordance with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations member states.
“This is a historic budget for us. This is a budget for ‘New Arunachal’ which will give pace to the growth and development in the state,” Mein said in his concluding remark in the floor of the House after a lengthy discussion on the budget estimate.
“It’s a futuristic budget for farmers, youth, women and poor,” he stated, adding that “the budget has been prepared with the vision of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas & Sabka Vishwas’.”
In his speech, the FM said that the State Government has set a target of Rs 2490 crore revenue – including Rs 1440 crore tax revenue and Rs 1050 crore non-tax revenue – for the financial year 2019-20.
He also stressed on generating state’s own revenue from different potential sectors including geology & mining, hydropower, tourism, agri-horti & allied sector. He further said that despite having huge hydropower potentials, the state has seen less power generation due to lack of coordination between generation, transmission and distribution systems.
He, however, said that in last few years, the state has seen a drastic increase in revenue generation but lot more needs to be done as there are huge prospective areas.
The Finance Minister further called for putting a check on wasteful expenditure on Tourism department, citing that many infrastructures created in areas devoid of basic amenities were lying unused.
To give the much needed boost to the industrial sector which still remained in a nascent stage, Mein said, “We have to bring a change in Industrial Policy for ease of doing business, providing incentive to prospective industries.” He also said if a conducive environment is created then only investors will come to the state.
Seeking members’ cooperation in implementing the Budget proposals in letter and spirit, the FM said the state government needs collaborative efforts from bureaucrats, technocrats, policy-makers to attain the goals in the spirit of ‘Team Arunachal’.
Participating in the budget discussion, former CM Nabam Tuki suggested the government to devise a policy for rearing of mithun and yak, which tribal people used to consider as an ‘ATM’, for the upliftment of rural economy, besides urging for construction of CC roads in all the district headquarters for their longer durability.
Senior Congress members Lombo Tayeng and Ninong Ering also hailed the Budget. Tayeng said it is really a “pro-people” and “beautiful” budget. The government, while preparing the Budget, has left no scope for the Opposition to criticize it, he said.