The Aam Aadmi Party government today presented a “tax-free” budget and rationalised the VAT structure which may reduce the cost of products such as readymade garments, shoes, watches, electric and hybrid vehicles in the national capital.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia presented a Rs 46,600 crore annual budget for 2016-17, pegging planned outlay at Rs 20,600 crore. Expectedly, education, health and transport sectors got the lion’s share of the total allocation.
The budget also proposed to provide drinking water to all authorised and unauthorised colonies by December 2017 through pipelines. Sisodia set aside an amount of Rs 676 crore in this regard.
Rs 10,690 crore was earmarked for education, a rise of 8.68 percent over last year. Of this, Rs 4,645 crore is for planned expenditure (23 percent), highest among all the heads.
“21 new school buildings have been constructed while 8,000 new classrooms are being built. It equals to the infrastructure of 200 schools. Every classroom will have CCTV cameras installed for which Rs 100 crore has been set aside,” Sisodia said.
“The government is committed to reducing tax arbitrage and will attempt to keep a uniform rate with neighbouring states.”
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)