By IANS
Jammu : As Finance Minister Tariq Hamid Qarra presented yet another zero-deficit budget in Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly here Wednesday, the opposition National Conference termed it “cheating and playing tricks” on the people.
Tabling the last budget of the coalition government, led by the Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, Qarra initiated his speech in chaste Urdu by underlining achievements during the past six years and punctuating with digs at the National Conference.
The speech exhibited an obvious tone and tenor of a state going to the polls this year.
Qarra informed the house that the coalition government would have spent “Rs.87,000 crore (870 billion) by next year, the majority on development works”.
The budget for the year 2008-2009 reflected income of about Rs.18,400 crore and about the same expenditure.
The patron of the PDP and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed made his first appearance in the house during the current session.
The finance minister proposed reforms and measures to boost sectors like small-scale industries, tourism and transport besides power.
The hour-long speech by the minister was dotted by protests by opposition members.
Reacting to the budget, leader of the opposition Abdul Rahim Rather said: “Presenting zero deficit budget is cheating and playing tricks with people”.
He wondered how the state could have a zero-deficit budget when bills worth over Rs.500 crore (five billion) were pending in the government treasuries.
“Government cannot explain many things like why it cannot pay salaries on time, why no GP (General Provident) fund and other payments, if it’s a zero deficit budget,” said Rather, a former finance minister himself.
The opposition leader also pointed out that the budget speech didn’t say anything about “unemployment – one of major problems faced by the state – and agriculture that sustains 75 percent of the state’s population”.
He charged that the state may spend Rs.87,000 crore by next year end, “but we do not know where this money is being spent and what physical targets have been achieved”.