Tripura to cut costs, mop up revenue

AGARTALA, March 5: Tripura finance minister Badal Chowdhury today presented a tax-free budget of Rs 2724.97 crore, leaving an "uncovered" deficit of Rs 106.91 crore for the year 2001-2002. Finance secretary Debasish Sarkar said the government would try to augment collection of revenue and launch an austerity drive to slash expenses. The finance minister also presented a supplementary budget of Rs 116 crore to make up for the shortfall in the outgoing financial year's allocation. However, Sarkar claimed that the supplementary budget for the outgoing financial year was tabled because of the "excess" expenditure incurred by the state government. According to estimates furnished by the minister, Rs 1382.70 crore (which amounts to more than 50 per cent of the total allocation) will be spent on payment of salaries under Plan and non-Plan heads and for payment of loans and interests. As in the previous years, education tops the list in terms of allocation with 17 per cent of the total outlay followed by power with 9 per cent and police with 8 per cent of the total allocation. In his budget speech, the finance minister also dwelt on the resource constraint faced by the state government because of the changing funding pattern. To drive home his point, Chowdhury referred to the final recommendations of the 11th Finance Commission, which has reduced the gap between grants and the share of resources. "The 11th Finance Commission has been favourable to special category states," Chowdhury added. He also criticised the dwindling Central allocations on vital sectors like agriculture, health, education and small scale industries saying the Centre's policies of liberalisation would further the interests of multinationals and rich industrialists of the country. Chowdhury asserted that his budget for the financial year 2001-2002 would focus on the primary sector as the government wanted to achieve self-sufficiency in food production within 10 years. "This will be done through creation of irrigation facilities for which a massive programme has been taken up," the finance minister added. Regarding allocations for the home department and counter-insurgency, Chowdhury said the state police were undergoing a process of modernisation and funds have been allocated for the purpose. He expressed satisfaction over the rapid pace of border fencing work. He said a rebel peace camp had been set up in the Shikaribari area of Dhalai district for rehabilitation of surrendered militants. He said for the first time, the state government has introduced an MLA's local area fund and Rs 5 lakh has been allocated to each legislator. This will incur an expenditure of Rs 3 crore. Chowdhury said the amount would be allocated from the Plan fund received by the state government from the Planning Commission.