ITANAGAR, Feb 22: The Arunachal Pradesh assembly on Friday passed the vote-on-account for the year 2019-20 by voice vote.
With the state assembly elections due in April-May this year, Deputy CM Chowna Mein on Thursday presented the Rs 3,455.48 crore vote-on-account for four months to meet the state’s expenditure for the period, till a full-fledged budget is placed in the assembly.
Initiating the discussion in the assembly, Mein, who also holds the finance portfolio, said, “Since the 2019-20 annual development agenda has not yet been finalized, the estimates of expenditure in the vote-on-account for four months are based on salaries, wages, pension and other unavoidable expenses.”
Referring to the resource position of the state for 2018-19, Mein stated that the share of central taxes grew from actual receipt of Rs 9238.79 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 10,798.47 crore in the revised estimate of 2018-19.
“The state’s own tax revenue in the revised estimate (RE) of 2018-19 is Rs 1,200 crore, as against receipt of Rs 899.19 crore in 2017-18, at a growth of 33 percent. The non-tax revenue in the RE of 2018-19 is estimated at Rs 900 crore, as against the collection of Rs 699.30 crore in 2017-18, showing a growth of almost 29 percent,” the minister added.
Mein informed that the revised estimate for 2018-19 has been fixed at Rs 22,070.31 crore, of which Rs 13,521.19 crore is under the revenue sector and Rs 8,549.12 crore under the capital sector.
“The increase in revised estimate 2018-19, as compared to the budget estimate for the same year, is due to the forthcoming parliamentary and assembly elections, panchayat and municipal elections, hike in power purchase, and also due to enhancement of wages for contingency employees and grant of tough location allowances to the regular government employees,” the deputy chief minister said.
Mein said that under the leadership of Chief Minister Pema Khandu, the state has achieved a record benchmark of Rs 2,100 crore revenue generation in the state’s own tax and non-tax sectors, marking an increase of Rs 500 crore from the last financial years collection of Rs 1598.49 crore.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu had earlier committed himself to ensuring that the state’s revenue generation would cross Rs 2000 crore in 2018-19 through checking revenue leakages and enriching the state exchequer.
Crediting the achievement to the government employees, especially those of the enforcement departments, Khandu said, “There has been a visible improvement in the work culture in the last two-and-a-half years. The ‘Team Arunachal’ mantra has resulted in multiplying of the state’s revenue from its past collection.”
“For the past 33 years since we attained statehood in 1987, the revenue generation of the state never touched the mark of Rs 1000 crore. But due to the concerted effort and hard work of the state government and its dedicated officers, the revenue generation shot to a record new height of Rs 2100 crore in 2018-19,” the CM said in a statement.
The state’s revenue generation in 2015-16 was just Rs 927.18 crores, which rose to Rs 1253.57 crore in 2016-17. In 2017-18 it was Rs 1598.57 crore, and in 2018-19 it touched the mark of Rs 2100 crore. (PTI and CMO)
