The Yogi Adityanath government tabled its fourth Budget for 2020-21 in the excess of Rs 5.12 lakh crore with focus on education, infrastructure and self-employment programme for educated jobless youth on Tuesday.
The total allocation for education sector - primary, secondary, higher, technical and medical education, was over Rs 78,000 crore.
The 2020-21 budget is almost 7 per cent higher than the 2019-20 budget which stood at Rs 4.79 lakh crore.
Finance Minister Suresh Khanna’s budget speech was laced with frequent quotes from Urdu and Hindu poetry and loaded barbs aimed at the previous Samajwadi Party regime and eulogizing the Yogi government.
In his fourth consecutive budget, the state government sought to pursue fiscal discipline and tamed fiscal deficit at 2.97 per cent, akin to the current financial year, at Rs 53,195 crore – which is within the mandated 3 per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) under Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act.
At the same time, public debt was also projected at a manageable 28.8 per cent of GSDP. The government proposed new schemes worth nearly Rs 11,000 crore.
Although the 2019-20 budget, tabled on February 7, 2019, was of Rs 4.79 lakh crore, the total size of the budget burgeoned to Rs 4.96 lakh crore due to tabling of two supplementary budgets worth Rs 13,595 crore and Rs 4,210 crore tabled on July 23 and December 17, 2019, respectively.
As per the 2020-21 budget presented on Tuesday, the state had estimated receipts of over Rs 5 lakh crore including Rs 4.22 lakh crore and Rs 78,000 crore in revenue and capital receipts respectively. Under budgetary expenses, more than Rs 3.95 lakh crore and Rs 1.18 lakh crore have been estimated under revenue and capital expenditures respectively.
The government projected net State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) and Value Added Tax (VAT) kitty of Rs 91,568 crore, apart from Rs 37,500 crore in Excise revenue.
Meanwhile, the state allocated more than Rs 5,400 crore for airport, metro and expressway projects, including Ganga Expressway (RS 2,000 crore), Jewar International Airport (Rs 2,000 crore), Ayodhya Airport (Rs 500 crore) and Metro rail projects of Kanpur, Agra and Gorakhpur (Rs 844 crore). A sum of Rs 92.50 crore was also provided for other airports under regional connectively scheme.
The state government also allocated Rs 300 crore and Rs 210 crore for socio-economic development in backward regions of Purvanchal (Eastern UP) and Bundelkhand respectively.
Besides, more than Rs 7,400 crore was provided for different rural road and highway projects under Public Works Department (PWD, apart from road projects funded by World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The Yogi government set aside Rs 250 crore for promotion of state micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) under flagship ‘One District, One Product’ (ODOP) project.
Besides, Rs 250 crore was allocated by the government for marriage of girls from poor families.
For skill development of the youth, the state government proposed to set up ‘Yuva Hub’ at all 75 districts and provided Rs 1,200 crore in the budget. The state allocated nearly Rs 9,000 crore for different water projects, including canals, potable water, water conservation, irrigation etc.
Besides, Rs 900 crore was earmarked for Regional Rapid Transit system from Delhi to Meerut.
The government provided Rs 200 crore each for Ballia Link Expressway and Gorakhpur Link Expressway while a ‘Prerna Sthal’ would be set up in Lucknow at a cost of Rs 50 crore.
The government also sanctioned Rs 300 crore for Purvanchal Development Fund and Rs 210 crore for Bundelkhand Development Fund.
In the social sector, the government provided Rs 1200 crore for Mukhyamantri Kanya Sumangla Yojana, Rs 1432 crore for Destitute Women Pension Scheme and Rs 4000 crore for National Nutrition drive.
The government announced to launch two new schemes - Chief Minister Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme and Yuva Udyamita Vikas Abhiyan (YUVA), to link the youth with self- employment and earmarked Rs 100 crore for CM Apprenticeship Promotion to provide stipend and Rs 50 crore for setting up YUVA hub in districts.
In the education sector, the government has plans to set up Ayush University in Gorakhpur, Law University in Prayagraj and Police Forensic University in Lucknow.
The government sanctioned Rs 270 crore for Atal Residential Schools being set up at all divisional headquarters.
For roads, the government sanctioned Rs 2305 crore for construction and its widening while another Rs 3524 crore was set aside for repairs of roads.
The government proposed Rs 400 crore for the construction of courts, Rs 150 crore for construction of a new building in Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court.
In religious tourism sector, a total of Rs 85 crore was allotted for tourist facilities across the state, Rs 10 crore for Tulsi Smarak Bhawan in Ayodhya, Rs 180 crore for setting up a cultural centre in Varanasi and Rs 200 crore for Kashi Vishwanath corridor.
For minority welfare, the government sanctioned Rs 783 crore for development of basic infrastructure and another Rs 479 crore for education facilities.
Through the budget, the government claimed that it was estimating revenue saving of Rs 27,450.88 crores.
Fiscal deficit of the state during 2020-21 was estimated at around Rs 53,195.46 crore which is 2.97 per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) while the state’s debt liability is estimated to be of 28.8 per cent of GSDP.
