Itanagar, Feb. 22 (PTI): The Arunachal Pradesh Assembly on Friday passed the Vote-on-Account for the year 2019-20 by voice vote.
With state Assembly elections due in April-May this year, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein on Thursday presented the INR 3,455.48 crore vote on accounts for four months to meet up states expenditure for the period, till a full-fledged budget is placed in the Assembly.
Initiating the discussion in the Assembly, Mein, who also holds the Finance portfolio, said, "Since the 2019-20 Annual Development Agenda has not yet been finalised, the estimates of expenditure in the vote on account for four months are based on salaries, wages, pension and other unavoidable expenses."
Referring to the resource position of the state for 2018-19, Mein stated that the share of central taxes grew from actual receipt of INR 9238.79 crore in 2017-18 to INR 10,798.47 crore in revised estimate of 2018-19.
"The states own tax revenue in the revised estimate (RE) of 2018-19 is INR 1,200 crore as against receipt of INR 899.19 crore in 2017-18 at a growth of 33 per cent. The non-tax revenue in the RE of 2018-19 is estimated at INR 900 crore as against the collection of INR 699.30 crore in 2017-18 showing a growth of almost 29%," the minister added.
Mein informed that the revised estimate for 2018-19 has been fixed at INR 22,070.31 crore of which INR 13,521.19 crore under revenue sector and INR 8,549.12 crore under capital sector.
"The increase in revised estimate 2018-19 as compared to budget estimate for the same year is due to ensuing parliamentary and assembly elections, panchayat and municipal elections, hike in power purchase and also due to enhancement of wages for contingency employees and grant of tough location allowances to the regular government employees," the deputy chief minister said.
Mein said under the leadership of Chief Minister Pema Khandu, the state has achieved a record benchmark of INR 2,100 crore revenue generation in state's own tax and non tax sectors marking an increase of INR 500 crore from the last financial years collection of INR 1598.49 crore.
