Skill development, employment generation amongst visions set in budget: Joykumar
Source: The Sangai Express / DIPR

Imphal, July 20 2017: Deputy Chief Minister Yumnam Joykumar Singh said skill development, employment generation and providing safe drinking water to all are some of the major thrust areas where Government will pay attention in the current financial year 2017-18 .

Talking to media persons on the Budget Estimates for the current financial year which was tabled in the State Assembly today, at his office at Annexe Building, Manipur Secretariat (North Block), Deputy Chief Minister who is in-charge of Finance said, Government is expecting a healthy growth rate which may be upto 10% in the current fiscal and therefore, new jobs can be created .

He said, Government is expecting to get Rs 24,338.78 crore as Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) this year which is more than the previous year, ie, Rs 22,028.04 only ending March 31, 2017.Altogether, a sum of Rs 12,510.61 crore is expected to collect as total receipts this year from all sources which is also more than the previous year and a total of Rs 12,286.92 crore is expected to be expended giving a surplus of Rs 223.68 crore this year .

Joykumar further said, despite having a Gross Fiscal Deficit of Rs 851.41 crore, the Government is expected to set the rate to 3.50% of GSDP this year .

On revenue collection, he said that Government will tighten up leakages in the tax collection this year.

Land revenue collection will be increased and tax collection from forest products have been increasing considerably compared to the previous years .

About a sum of Rs 9 crore has been collected in the 1st quarter of the current fiscal and further the collection rate will increase .

Reiterating that GST will help the State to improve its financial health, Deputy Chief Minister said, Manipur being a consumer State will get its share in the collection levied on Goods & Services and the new tax regime will contribute to the overall financial growth .

As for the Centrally sponsored Schemes, he said, there have been a lot of hurdles in the financial management.

Non submission of Utilisation Certificates (UCs) and also non-submission of DCC Bills by the previous Government have become a major hurdle with the Government in the completion of ongoing projects .

In this regard, after the ongoing Budget Session a ministerial team will go to Delhi and approach the concerned Ministries .

Besides this, a number of new projects will be conceptualised such as cleaning of important river beds like Imphal, Iril and Nambul rivers in the first phase to avoid perennial flood in the State, he said .

Establishment of a Science City in the State will also be a priority and Government will try to approach the Centre for it, he added .

Commissioner (Finance), Vivek Kumar Dewangan, Commissioner (Excise), Hrishikesh Modak and other officials from the Finance department attended the briefing.

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