SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir government will be spending Rs 112950 crore in fiscal 2022-23, according to budget estimates that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented to the Lok Sabha on Monday, March 14, 2022. This includes an amount of Rs 41335 crore that will fund the developmental activities in the year starting April 1, 2022.
In the whopping expenditure, Rs 32495 crore (29 per cent of the overall expenditure) would go to salaries, Rs 9780 crore (9 per cent) on pensions, Rs 7427 crore (6 per cent) on interest payment on debts, Rs 5000 crore on power purchases, Rs 4287 crore on the grant in aid, Rs 3319 crore to central sponsored schemes, Rs 861 crore on maintenance and repairs and other things; and Rs 8446 crore fall on “other” expenditure. Besides, from the capital expenditure, Rs 17761 crore (37 per cent) has been set aside as the main development budget, Rs 3521 crore as repayment of the debt, Rs 18431 crore under central sponsored schemes, Rs 109 crore for extending loans and advances, Rs 200 crore for equity and investment and Rs 1313 crore for Panchayat Raj Institutions.
On the income side, Rs 68206 crore (34 per cent) will come from the centre as grants, Rs 10600 crore is the GST, Rs 1800 crore is the Sales Tax, Rs 1905 crore is excise duty and another Rs 2361 crore will come from other taxable sources. The non-tax incomes have been estimated to be Rs 8648 crore of which Rs 5000 crore is expected to be the power tariff. The budget suggested Jammu and Kashmir will have additional resource mobilisation of Rs 5802 crore the net fiscal. For the first time, the government says it will raise Rs 3000 crore by asset monetisation.
In the current fiscal ending March 31, 2022, the budget details said the overall expenditure booked by Jammu and Kashmir was at Rs 102445 crore of which 35208 crore went to capital expenditure, asset creation and interest payments.
According to revised estimates for fiscal 2021-22, the government has not been able to achieve its targets to the extent it expected. Against the estimated resource devolution of Rs 62656 crore from the centre, only Rs 61501 crore have come. Against Rs 16276 crore tax collection within Jammu and Kashmir, only Rs 15480 crore has been collected. Against Rs 10,000 crore of additional resource mobilisation in the year, the budget papers offer nothing in revised estimates. Non-tax revenue was supposed to be Rs 8209 crore but the budget documents put the actual collection at Rs 7942 crore.
Last year’s budget had suggested that it will be raising Rs 11480 crore by way of loans but the revised estimates suggest that it has actually raised Rs 17522 crore. The huge jump has been in the market borrowings that have witnessed almost doubling from estimates of Rs 7614 crore to Rs 15138 core.
It has not fully hit the targets set by the budget estimates in the developmental sector. Against budget estimates of Rs 39817 crore, the overall capital expenditure under revised estimates suggests only Rs 35208 crore would be spent.
However, the budget estimates suggest fiscal 2022-23 will push the costs of revenue expenditure on a unit of capital expenditure to a new low thus suggesting a better expenditure strategy. It expects capital expenditure and the capital receipts to move far away from each other.
By the end of 2020-21, the total liabilities stand at Rs 92953, which is almost 53 per cent of the SGDP of Rs 176282 (at current prices).
