Puducherry Budget Highlights: Lots To Cheer For Farmers, Rs 50000 Fixed Deposit For Girl Child, Rs 300 Subsidy Per LPG Cylinder

Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy presented a Rs 11600 crore tax free budget for the Union Territory (UT) today (13 March).

The major announcements of the budget are-

• Under the Chief Minister's Girl Child Protection Scheme, the government would create a fixed deposit of Rs 50000 for a time period of 18 years in a nationalised bank for every girl child born in Puducherry.

• All ration card holders would receive a subsidy of Rs 300 per LPG cylinder (upto 12 cylinders in a calendar year). An amount of Rs 126 crore has been allocated for this purpose.

• A subsidy of 1 per cent would be provided on land, buildings and machinery to youth for the first five years after starting an industry.

• The government would pay the insurance premium of Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (accident insurance scheme) for all red ration card holders.

• A software park would be set up in the Union Territory with the help of the Software Techology Park of India (STPI).

Lots To Cheer For Farmers

• 600 acres proposed to be brought under organic farming over the next two years.

• Organic agricultural inputs to be supplied free of cost to Scheduled Caste farmers and with 75 per cent subsidy to others

• An incentive of Rs 8000 per acre towards promoting the cultivation of traditional varieties of paddy

• 50% subsidy for the purchase of portable bio-gas units of 1000 litre capacity

• An additional input subsidy of Rs 2000 to the existing production incentive of Rs 3000 per acre for pulses and Rs 5000 per acre for millets

• 90% subsidy for small and marginal farmers for micro irrigation facilities by availing funds from the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) and Micro Irrigation Fund for NABARD

• Seed production, seed villages and seed hubs to be incentivised

• A special scheme to be introduced to boost the export of Jasmine flowers

World Tamil Conference And 150th Birth Anniversary Of Sri Aurobindo

• Rangasamy announced that the government would hold a World Tamil Conference

• A national level conference would be held as a part of the celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo

Budgetary Resources

• Of the Rs 11600 crore budget, the UT's own resources amount to Rs 6154.54 crore and central assistance including Disaster Relief Funds amounts to Rs 3117.77 crore. Additionally, an amount of Rs 620 crore would be available to the UT under centrally sponsored schemes.

• The remaining Rs 1707.69 crore would be mobilised through open market borrowings and loans from central financial institutions.

Breakup Of The Budgetary Outlay

Salaries and pensions would take up Rs 2542 crore (21.92 per cent) and Rs 1455 crore (12.53 per cent) respectively. The other major components are Rs 1850 crore (15.95 per cent) for repayment of loans, Rs 1690 crore (14.57 per cent) for purchase of power, Rs 1623 crore (13.9 per cent) for infrastructure projects and Rs 1856 crore (16 per cent) for social welfare programmes.