Cabinet takes up budget speech for discussion

CM N. Rangasamy chairing a meeting of the Cabinet on Saturday.

The Puducherry Cabinet on Saturday took up for discussion Chief Minister N. Rangasamy’s Budget speech.

The meeting, which began at 5. 30, pm will continue till 11 p.m. Mr. Rangasamy, who is also the Finance Minister, will be presenting a full Budget in the Assembly on Monday. The speech would be approved tonight by the Cabinet, said a Minister.

After 12-year gap

It will be after a gap of 12 years that a government in the Union Territory is going to present a full Budget before the beginning of a financial year. The norm followed by successive governments was to present a vote on account before March and present a full Budget in July-August.

Following an advisory from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs last year to discard the practice of presenting interim Budget, the territorial administration in January this year convened a meeting of the Puducherry Planning Board to fix an outlay for 2023-24. It arrived at an outlay of ₹11,600 crore for the next financial year. The MHA approved it on Thursday.

According to a highly placed source in the government, the Budget would give thrust to greater capital expenditure due to increase in Central assistance and tax buoyancy. “We got around ₹1,400 crore more last year as Central assistance. Our GST collection has gone up by around 30%. Excise duty collection is expected to touch ₹1,500 crore next fiscal. These give us more room for greater allocation to capital expenditure, which is necessary to spur economic growth and job creation,” he said.

In addition to the Budgetary support, the Centre has agreed to allocate more money for tourism and road infrastructure.

Two days ago, the government submitted a detailed report on the flyover project connecting Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi squares, he said. The Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways would be spending around ₹400 crore for the project in the next fiscal, the source said.