Chandigarh: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in Punjab presented its first full budget in the Assembly today.
Presenting the budget, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that this time his government is going to fulfill many of its promises and guarantees.
Cheema said that the budget of Punjab for the financial year 2023-24 would be Rs 1,96,462 crore, which is 26% more than the previous year. In 2022-23, the total budget of Punjab was Rs 1,55,860 crore.
Cheema claimed that the AAP government’s biggest focus is on education and health sector, but equal attention is being paid to the rest of the area.
Cheema said when his government took over, it inherited huge debts that were taken by the previous governments. Despite this, the AAP government is committed to take Punjab forward.
Highlights of the Budget
New medical colleges in Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur
11 new colleges will be built in the state. Rs 36 crore has already been released in 2022-23. A budgetary expenditure of Rs 68 crore is proposed for development and construction of libraries in existing government colleges.
Rs 15 crore proposed for upgradation and installation of two new galleries of war memorial complex in Amritsar.
Rs 258 crore to promote sports in Punjab.
Class 11 students will have to propose their original business ideas and will get seed money of Rs 2,000 per student.
Rs 100 crore for roof top solar system in schools.
An allocation of ₹1,015 crore is proposed for medical education in the financial year 2023-24.
Two oil mills at Budhladha and Gidderbaha.
Rs 350 crore for stubble management
Rs 75 crore was given for sugar complex in Batala and Gurdaspur. 100 crore allocated for completion of old works.
A provision of Rs.615 crore has been proposed for improvement of technical education institutions, which is about 6 per cent more than the previous year.
GNDU has prepared an apple variety from tissue culture.
The Punjab government has proposed Rs 17,072 crore for school and higher education, which is 12% higher than the previous year.
The agriculture sector plays a major role in the state’s GSDP as compared to India’s 18.11 overall contribution. Punjab’s per capita income at current prices during the financial year 2022-23 has been 7.40 per cent. It becomes Rs 1.73 lakh crore
According to the upcoming estimates towards the main micro economic indicator of Punjab, the GSDP of Punjab for the current year of the state has been Rs 6,38,23 crore. This is an increase of 9.24 percent over the previous year.
Similarly, for the financial year 2023-24, it will be Rs 6,98,635 crore. It has been 45.91 percent under the service sector. Similarly, the agriculture sector has been 28.94 percent. Punjab’s industry has a combined of 25.15 percent.
Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema proposed Rs 74,620 crore for committed expenditure, which is 12% higher than the financial year 2022-23.
The Punjab Finance Minister announced Rs 11,782 crore for capital expenditure for the financial year 2023-24, which is 22% higher than last year’s budget.
26% increase in budget for 2023-24 from last year.
This year, the focus will be on increasing the income of farmers and labourers by encouraging agriculture and allied work.
Cheema said that the central government is ignoring the long pending reasonable demands of Rs 9035 crore.
About Rs 2880 crore of rural development fees at the rate of three percent have not been released by the central government. He accused the central government of not releasing money through a well-planned conspiracy.
So far, 26, 797 jobs have been given to the youth of Punjab. Direct sowing of paddy is being promoted. The promise of 300 units of free electricity has been fulfilled.
Cheema said that Bhagwant Mann’s government is trying to end the debt given by the previous governments.