By IANS,
Chandigarh : No new taxes were proposed in the Haryana budget presented in the state assembly Friday by Finance Minister H.S. Chattha.
He said that the revenue deficit in the budget 2013-14 would be Rs.2,443.23 crore whereas the overall fiscal deficit would be Rs.8,975.97 crore.
While the revenue deficit has gone down by nearly Rs.720 crore over last fiscal (2012-13), the fiscal deficit has gone up by nearly Rs.843 crore.
While Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda complimented Chattha for presenting a tax-free budget, the opposition Indian National Lok Dal said that the “no new tax” was only a farce as the Hooda government was imposing taxes through other modes, thus burdening the people.
Calling it a “disappointing and directionless” budget, INLD leader Abhey Singh Chautala said that the budget “has nothing for the common man”.
“It has become habit of the government. At the beginning of every fiscal it promise to provide a tax-free budget but by the end of the fiscal it imposes a number hidden and new taxes/levies on the people of the state,” he claimed.
“Last year the government patted its back by announcing a tax free budget but soon after the budget session, it announced 25 percent hike in VAT rates. Moreover, it had also imposed house tax, increased bus fare and electricity charges to accumulate Rs.5,700 crore from the electricity consumers,” Chautala added.
In his budget speech, Chattha said that against the national average mobilisation of 92.5 percent of the projections made in the 11th Five Year Plan, Haryana was able to mop up resources to the extent of 192 percent of the projected mobilisation.
He said the slowdown notwithstanding, Haryana will be able to achieve the revenue collection target of Rs.19,962 crore under value added tax (VAT), central sales tax (CST), entertainment duty, passenger and goods tax, and excise for the current year.
“We projected our tax revenue for 2012-13 at Rs.23,873.28 crore and we collected Rs.24,289.81 crore as per the revised estimates with a growth of 19.07 percent over 2011-12,” Chattha said.
In the budget for 2012-13, the revenue deficit was Rs.2,455.55 crore and fiscal deficit was at Rs.7,596.82 crore.
Haryana has been a revenue-deficit state since 2007.