This August House had voted a budgetary expenditure of Rs 25,984 crore for the current fiscal. The Revised Estimates are now placed at Rs 28,733 crore indicating an increase of Rs 2,749 crore with similar improvement on the receipt side. These figures include a sum of Rs 2,300 crore on receipt side, comprising of Rs 1,000 crore as one time grant in aid from the Centre and Rs 1,300 crore as additional open market borrowing outside the FRBM arrangement. This amount of Rs 2,300 crore is proposed to be utilized to reduce the accumulated over draft of the government with the J&K Bank. The total capital expenditure is now estimated at Rs 8,059 crore on both plan and non plan side. The revenue expenditure is estimated to increase to Rs 18,374 crore as per RE of the current fiscal from the BE figure of Rs 17,698 crore, indicating a net increase of Rs 676 crore.
The main reason for the increase of Rs 676 crore is that the power purchase bill has gone up by Rs 273 crore. Besides this, the government has increased the rate of House Rent Allowance of its employees by 2.5% raising the present rate of 15% to 17.5% w.e.f. 1st July 2010 involving an expenditure of Rs 70 crore in the current financial year. The government has also announced a further increase of HRA by 2.5% w.e.f. 1st July 2011 taking the HRA rate to 20%. The government has also sanctioned Hardship Allowance to the personnel in the Police Department @ 10% of basic pay. This last measure is estimated to cost Rs 60 crore for part of the current financial year.
Further, the Security Related Expenditure is expected to go up by Rs 197 crore over the BE of Rs 496 crore. The outgo on grants in aid, which mainly account for devolutions to the Urban Local Bodies, has also increased by Rs 65 crore.
During the current fiscal, the tax revenue is expected to reach Rs 3,643 crore, exceeding the BE target of Rs 3,505 crore by Rs 138 crore. This figure of expected tax revenue indicates an increase of about 18.5% over the last year’s RE of Rs 3,075 crore. The revised estimates for VAT collection are placed at Rs 2,573 crore as against BE figure of Rs 2,511 crore exceeding the target by about Rs 62 crore. In percentage terms, the growth rate over the last year’s RE comes to over 19%. The collections of Excise Duties are expected at Rs 307 crore as against the BE target of Rs 280 crore exceeding the target by Rs 27 crore. Taxes on Goods and Passengers are expected to rise upto Rs 358 crore in RE against the BE figure of Rs 334 crore, exceeding the target by Rs 24 crore.
The revised target for the collection of non-tax revenue of the State has been raised to Rs 1,475 crore over the BE of Rs 1,307 crore in the hope that purchase of additional energy to meet the growing consumer demand, involving extra cost of about Rs 273 crore. The concerned Department have been asked to make all out efforts to meet the revised non-tax revenue targets, particularly the power receipts.
The figures for expenditure on repayment of loans to the Government of India and other institutions, estimated at Rs 959 crore and the expenditure on payment of interest on loans estimated at Rs 2,251 crore in the BE, have been maintained at the same level in the Revised Estimates.
Major Developmental Initiatives
The work on the Mughal Road estimated to cost about Rs 640 crorecis progressing satisfactorily. The total expenditure on this road by the end of March, 2011 is expected at about Rs 450 crore. Fair-weather connectivity has already been provided between Kashmir Valley and Jammu region through this road. The work of consolidation, metalling and macademisation of the road surface shall be resumed as soon as the weather improves.
The progress of works on Udhampur-Katra-Qazigund Railway line and four laning-cum-upgradation of the National Highway 1A between Lakhanpur and Srinagar is satisfactory. The Toll Plaza Complex at Lakhanpur estimated to cost Rs 32.20 crore is nearing completion. With the expected agreement of Ministry of Railways, we hope to take possession of 108 kanals of railway land at Lakhanpur for providing additional parking space at the Toll Plaza for the vehicles in transit. Besides, we are also chasing the respective Central government authorities to expedite construction of the import side bridge on river Ravi and Lakhanpur bye-pass on the National Highway.
Sewa II Hydro Electric Project having an installed capacity of 120 MWs has been commissioned in September, 2010 under the Central sector. Work on the J&K State Power Development Corporation owned 450 MWs Baglihar HEP-II is expected to be completed in three years time. The procedural bottlenecks in implementation of 1200 MWs Sawalkot HEP are also being attended to so that the construction work on this long pending project begins as early as possible. The government proposes to start work on 93 MWs New Gandarbal and 50 MW Lower Kalnai HEPs through J&K State Power Development Corporation during the next financial year. The State Power Development Department is simultaneously executing several major projects on improvement of transmission and distribution infrastructure.
