1. Gujarat Government Presents Rs 1.92 Lakh Crore Interim Budget
The Gujarat government on Tuesday, 19 February, presented a vote-on-account proposal instead of a full-fledged budget for financial year 2019-20 without changing the current tax structure in the House.
The size of the interim budget for the fiscal is Rs 1,91,817 crore against the current financial year’s Rs 1,40,531. Tax revenue has been estimated at Rs 1,00,125 crore.
Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, who also holds the finance portfolio, said owing to insufficient time on account of the Lok Sabha elections, the state government has decided to present an interim budget for the period of four months from April to July 2019.
(Source: Financial Express)
2. Vote-On-Account: Gujarat Govt to Raise Rs 42,000 Crore Public Debt Next Year
The Gujarat government has estimated its public debt for financial year 2019-20 at Rs 42,000 crore. The same remained at Rs 43,501 crore, according to the revised estimates of financial year 2018-19.
As per the government's estimate presented in the Budget of 2018-19, the revised estimate of public debt in 2017-18 had remained at Rs 2.17 lakh crore.
Looking at the total revenue expenditure, the budget expenditure for 2019-20 will remain at Rs 1,45,022 crore as against Rs 1,39,153 crore shown in the revised estimates of the previous financial year.
The capital expenditure showed decrease in the FY 2019-20 to Rs 45,107.91 crore against Rs 48,956.49 crore in previous year. This shows that the government's expenditure on creating new resources has been declining and it seems like an exercise to control the deficit.
(Source: DNA Ahmedabad)
3. Gujarat Budget: Bizmen Laud Focus on Infra, Environment
Businessmen in the state have welcomed the Budget, saying that it focuses on infrastructure and environment. Since this is a Vote-On-Account, they hoped that the final Budget will make provisions for a comprehensive policy on retail trade and abolition of Professional Tax in order to improve Ease of Doing Business in the state.
"The proposal to build 80 flyovers and underpasses in cities would go a long way in easing traffic woes. With Metro train beginning operations in 2020, traffic will further ease in the city," said Jaimin Vasa, President of Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The government has also made a provision of Rs 2,275 crore for a pipeline for deep sea discharge of industrial effluents to create infrastructure of Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs), a proposal welcomed by industry as the latter is fighting a tough battle to control pollution.
(Source: DNA Ahmedabad)
4. Guj Dy CM Dubs Mevani ‘Anti-National’ for Opposing Bullet Train
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project was the focus of an acrimonious debate in the Gujarat Assembly on Tuesday, 19 February, with Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel dubbing Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani "anti-national" for opposing it.
The high speed rail project between Maharashtra and Gujarat's biggest cities has been caught up in legal battles after several farmers along the route approached courts to stall land acquisition.
The verbal duel occurred when Patel was replying to a query by Congress MLA Akshay Patel on the project.
Mevani said, "Farmers of Gujarat and Maharashtra are against this project. They are not willing to give their land for it. I met such farmers in Maharashtra recently. If they are not willing, why you are snatching their land forcibly?"
(Source: PTI)
5. Vibrant Gujarat Summit: No Data About Jobs for Locals: Govt
The state government said on Tuesday, 19 February, that it does not have separate information about the number of jobs created for locals due to fructification of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) signed during Vibrant Gujarat Summits over the years.
This was stated in written replies by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in the House in response to questions by various MLAs regarding jobs created for locals by companies that had signed MoUs at the summit in 2013 and 2015.
"In the MoUs/investment intentions, investors give details about proposed employment generation. The information regarding job creation for locals is not categorised separately," Rupani, who also holds the industries portfolio, said.
(Source: DNA Ahmedabad)
6. Over 2,000 Units Closed in Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation
More than 2,000 industrial units in various estates of the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) are closed, information provided in the Assembly by the state government on Tuesday, 19 February, showed.
Information collated from written replies to MLAs by the chief minister showed that 2,069 units were shut in GIDCs in 31 districts as of December 31, 2018. Incidentally, 380, or almost 20 per cent of these closed units, shut down within the last two years.
Industry players said that the number of shut units would suggest that players in some sectors, especially small and medium sized units, are not doing well. The data shows that 196 units were shut in GIDC estates in Ahmedabad district, of which 25 closed down in the last two years.
(Source: DNA Ahmedabad)
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