Chandigarh, Mar 22 (PTI) The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday passed a vote-on-account of more than Rs 37,120 crore to meet the state government’s expenditure for the first three months (April-June) of the 2022-23 financial year.
Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema moved the Punjab Appropriation (Vote-On-Account) Bill, 2022 on the concluding day of the assembly session here. The House then passed it.
According to the vote-on-account for three months, the state’s debt has been pegged at Rs 5,442 crore, and an expenditure of Rs 4,788.20 crore will be incurred on interest payments.
For the agriculture sector, an amount of Rs 2,356 crore will be incurred while Rs 4,643 crore will be spent on education, sports, art and culture.
An outlay of Rs 1,340 crore has been budgeted in the vote-on-account for health and family welfare while Rs 1,097 crore has been earmarked for the power sector.
Cheema also presented supplementary demands for grants of expenditure of the state government for 2021-22.
Later, talking to reporters here, Cheema said there will be reduction in expenditure and there will be an effective collection of non-tax revenue.
He further said that all the proposals related to poll promises will be incorporated in the budget after three months.
Meanwhile, according to key fiscal indicators for April-September 2021 in comparison to indicators of the corresponding period of 2020, the state’s revenue receipts increased by Rs 1,492.64 crore, showing an increase of 4.84 per cent.
However, the grants-in-aid from the Centre decreased by Rs 4,449.71 crore, a drop of 31.35 per cent.
The state’s own tax revenue showed positive growth of 49.92 per cent over the corresponding period. The state’s tax revenue was Rs 16,356 crore during the April-September 2021 period.
The state’s goods and service tax collection rose by Rs 2,486.15 crore or 53.16 per cent while value added tax collection rose by Rs 1,438.03 crore, indicating 64.26 per cent rise. Excise collection also went up by Rs 469.77 crore.
The state’s non-tax revenue till September 2021 was Rs 1,529.19 crore as against Rs 1,085.92 crore in the corresponding period a year ago, registering a growth of 40.82 per cent. PTI CHS VSD HVA MR MR
