Rs 907.6 crore deficit budget placed in Jharkhand Assembly

Ranchi, Mar 5 (UNI) Jharkhand Finance Minister Stephne Marandi today presented a Rs 18,989.72-crore budget with no proposal to levy new tax for the next fiscal.

Mr Marandi said the budget stood at a deficit of Rs 907.6 crore, adding the government planned to generate revenue mainly from areas like state tax, grant-in-aid, share of Central taxes, public debt, GPF and others.

Mr Marandi, also the Deputy Chief Minister, said the government realised the value of education for overall development and proposed to allocate Rs 700 crore, the major component of budget size, towards this sector.

Some other departments that the Finance Minister put emphasis on included general services, legislature and other services with 10.13 per cent, administration service inluding public works (9.7 per cent), social security and welfare, labour and employment (9.2 per cent).

Significantly, the government allocated a meagre 1.3 per cent of budget size for the mines and industies though the state was the richest in the country for its mineral and mines.

The government proposed to provide electricity to 19,239 villages for which Rs 125 crore had been allotted, Mr Marandi said adding Rs 152.23 crore was allocated for the NREGA and Rs 350 crore for Prime Minister Gram Sarak Yojana.

The agriculture sector received Rs 175 crore.

The Finance Minister also announced that the government had already take initiatives to appoint 4401 Urdu teachers for the year.

UNI PRS SJC RC AS2022