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Punjab Budget woos women, BPL families by Sukhdeep Kaur
“Budget is more than a document of income and expenditure. People expect it to tackle the twin problems of poverty and social injustice while ensuring better income and standard of living.” Country’s first woman Finance Minister of any state government, Upinderjit Kaur, said this while presenting her first budget and last of the present Akali-BJP government on Monday.

With the state slated to go to polls early next year, the Rs 48,594-crore budget was high on populism, offering sops for women, schoolchildren and economically and socially backward sections. It also fulfills the wishlist of Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, who has been eulogising Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, by ensuring Rs 75 crore for bicycles for girls besides Rs 142 crore for sports and youth services and Rs 3,311 crore for power — his other two key interests.

The biggest poll bonanza is for the state’s own list of 14 lakh below poverty line (BPL) families whose monthly income is below Rs 30,000 per annum. They have been brought under the ambit of four existing welfare schemes — free of cost healthcare at secondary level government hospitals, free uniforms to children, Rs 15,000 for marriage of girls under the Shagun Scheme and attendance scholarship at primary school level.

The budget with no new taxes projects a revenue deficit of Rs 3,387 crore (1.3 per cent of the gross state domestic product), though it is lower than Rs 3,705 crore in the revised estimates for 2010-11. “The implementation of the pay panel recommendations will result in Rs 7,200 crore outgo on pay arrears and Rs 3,000 crore annual liability. Despite this, the committed expenditure of the state on wages, salaries, interest payments and pensions in 2011-12 would constitute 74.1 per cent of the revenue receipts, down a few notches from 75.3 per cent in 2010-11,” she added.

Kaur, however, skipped a mention of the other major drain on state resources — the growing subsidy bill, which has been downsized to Rs 3,500 crore for 2011-12.

This includes power subsidy, atta-dal and social security schemes. Other fiscal indicators, too, show stress on state finances. The fiscal deficit has gone up from Rs 7,188 crore as per revised estimates of 2010-11 to Rs 8,801 crore (3.45 per cent of the GSDP), which the FM attributed to higher capital expenditure, which is productive in nature.

The budget estimates also predict a Rs 77,585-crore debt burden in 2011-12, up from Rs 69,549 crore in the revised estimates for 2010-11. “The debt to GSDP ratio has been brought down to 30 per cent in 2010-11 from 46.5 per cent in 2004-05 and we are fully compliant with the 13th Finance Commission roadmap,” said the minister.

Interestingly, after much hype about the growth rate of 8.8 per cent in 2009-10 as per new series (base year 2004-05) of the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), the state has scaled down its growth rate by one per cent to 7.8 per cent. “The national average for 2009-10 was 7.9 per cent. So, Punjab is now among the fastest growing states and is expected to grow at 7.78 per cent against the national average of 8.5 per cent in 2010-11. After global recession, our manufacturing sector has picked up and grew at 11.9 per cent in 2009-10 — up from 6.5 per cent in 2008-09 — and services sector at 9.1 per cent. It is again expected to grow at 9.4 per cent in 2010-11,” Kaur said.

The per capita income of the state — Punjab ranks eighth in the country — has jumped by 6 per cent in constant prices to Rs 46,182 in 2010-11 and by 12.7 per cent at current prices to Rs 70,072 in 2010-11 from Rs 62,153 in 2009-10. Though much of optimism of better finances springs from the state’s growing own tax revenue — it grew at 44.49 per cent in 2010-11 — the growth rate is expected to come down to 17.31 per cent in 2011-12. “We are going as per the milestones set for Punjab by the 13th Finance Commission. By 2014-15, our revenue deficit will be down to zero fiscal deficit to three per cent of GSDP and debt to GSDP ratio to 38.7 per cent,” she added.