TAD NewsDesk, Uttar Pradesh: The UP government presented a huge budget of ₹5.50 lakh crore for 2021-2022. The state is now having trouble to create an equilibrium and utilize the money for common expenditure and allot it according to the budget.
A huge amount of money goes into the common expenditure of the state which includes payment of salaries, pension and debt servicing. The state government is left with limited funds for welfare schemes and development projects scheduled which is to be completed before the 2022 polls.
Yashvir Tyagi, former professor at department of economics, Lucknow University said,
“The state government spends more than 70% of revenue receipts on payment of salaries and pension to employees and debt servicing. It is left with hardly any financial space to fund welfare schemes or development projects.”
Former Rajya Sabha MP and senior Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said,
“The state government has presented a high deficit budget for 2021-22. It has, however, not given any indication about measures to meet this deficit. Although no taxes have been proposed in the state budget, the state government may resort to imposing more taxes to meet the budgetary deficit.”
The state government had estimated its total receipts to be about ₹5.0 lakh crore in 2020-21. Its receipts appear to come down to about ₹4.0 lakh crore due to the impact of Covid-19 on the economy. This includes a shortfall of ₹54.24 thousand crore in state’s share in the central taxes during the period. Its expenditure in 2020-21 is estimated to come down by ₹75.15 thousand crore under revenue expenditure head and ₹22.95 thousand crore under capital expenditure head. The state government proposes capital expenditure of ₹1,55,140 crore in 2021-22.
The government will have to create this balance and establish a requisite distribution in the required sectors.
Source: Hindustan Times
