Puducherry budget presented amidst Oppn protest

Puducherry: Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy on Monday presented a tax-free budget of Rs 7,530 crore for 2018-19.

Amid protest by All India N.R Congress and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Amma faction) over non-implementation of poll promises, Narayanasamy presented the annual financial in which Union Territory’s own resources for the current fiscal is estimated at Rs 4,570 crore, while the central assistance would be Rs 1,476 crore.

The anticipated grants for centrally sponsored scheme Rs 409 crore and the remaining Rs 1,050 crore will be met from open market borrowings and loans from central financial institutions, said Mr Narayanasamy in his speech.

Of the total Rs 7,530 crore budget, Rs 1,800 crore is allocated for salaries, Rs 875 crore for pension and Rs 1,380 crore for debt servicing including the repayment of loan and payment of interest and Rs 1,200 crore for the purchase of power.

The Chief Minister said his government was continuously requesting the central government to waive of legacy loan of Rs 2,177 crore and allot more grants from the central government to meet the expenditure on the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendation.

“With the separate public account of Puducherry the government of India dispensed with the grant of plan loans and Puducherry was permitted to avail loan through open market borrowings. At the time of the creation of the public account there was an outstanding loan of Puducherry to the tune of Rs 2,177 crore and the UT administration is insisting the central government to waive the legacy loan,” he said.

“It has been requested to include Puducherry in the ambit of Central Finance Commission so that more grants would be provided to meet the non-plan expenditure gap. We have not received any reply fron the Centre so far,” said Mr Narayanasamy.

The Chief Minister also pointed out that the government achieved 95 per cent of the revenue target spending Rs 6,757 crore in the last fiscal year where it spent 82 per cent on centrally sponsored schemes, which was the highest ever spending in the history of Puducherry.

On the other hand the entire opposition N R Congress and AIADMK members staged a walkout from the Assembly on Monday when the Chief Minister presented the annual budget. As soon as the Chief Minister started his speech the entire opposition members were on their feet shouting against the chief minister presenting the budget. Later the Opposition members staged a walkout stating that the government failed to full fill the promises and have no moral right to present the budget.