New Delhi: With an eye on next year’s Lok Sabha elections, Gujarat Finance Minister Kanu Desai on Friday presented his second budget and the first of the current state government, with a focus on infrastructure, agriculture, job creation and social security.
The state budget with a total outlay of ₹3,01,021.61 crore has not announced any new taxes on citizens, while value added tax on piped and compressed natural gas has been reduced from 15% to 5%.
In his address to the budget, Desai said that he was outlining the government’s vision for the next five years.
The budget emphasizes five specific areas for development: providing basic amenities and ensuring social security to the poor and needy; development of human resources; setting up of world-class infrastructure; Creating more and better job opportunities by encouraging private investment in agriculture, industrial and service sectors, especially tourism; and “Ensuring green development” with protection of the environment and efficient use of available resources.
He said the government would spend Rs 5 lakh crore on infrastructure development and Rs 2 lakh crore to boost activities in agriculture, industrial and service sectors in the next five years. Besides five high-speed corridors to strengthen the road network, Desai also announced expansion of the airport at Keshod and construction of a new airport at Dwarka. A provision of Rs 76 crore has been made in the budget for GIFT City to set up a fintech hub.
Following the party’s manifesto for the 2022 elections, the budget announced doubling of insurance coverage to Rs 10 lakh under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya-Mukhyamantri Amrutam Yojana and two free gas cylinders per year for the beneficiaries of the Ujjwala scheme .
Rs 15,182 crore allocated for the healthcare sector in the budget; Rs 38,403.15 crore for education, sports, arts and culture and Rs 34,756.01 crore for agriculture, irrigation and rural development.
