Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna on Monday presented a record Rs 736-crore budget for 2024-25 in the state assembly, focusing on youth development, agriculture and infrastructure development at religious places.
Presenting the budget, the state finance minister said the total expenditure for the next fiscal year will be Rs 7,36,437.71 crore, which includes new schemes worth Rs 24,863.57 crore. The state’s budget for 2023-24 is Rs 690 crore, which includes new schemes worth Rs 32,721 crore.
For the next fiscal year, the state government budget projects a total revenue of Rs 7,21,233.82 crore, of which revenue receipts will be Rs 6,06,802.4 billion and capital receipts will be Rs 1,14,531.42 crore.
The tax share in revenue is estimated at Rs 4,88,902.84 crore, which includes the state’s own tax revenue of Rs 2,70,086 crore and its share in the central tax pool of Rs 2,18,816.84 crore.
The total expenditure is estimated at Rs 7,36,437.71 crore.
Of the total expenditure, Rs 5,32,655.33 crore was allocated to revenue account and Rs 2,03,782.38 crore to capital account.
After deducting the total expenditure from the Consolidated Fund revenue, the budget estimates a deficit of Rs 15,103.89 crore.
Khanna said the amount paid to eligible beneficiaries under the Poor Women’s Pension Scheme has been increased from Rs 500 per month to Rs 1,000 per month.
As many as 31,28,000 poor women have benefited from the scheme till the third quarter of 2023-2024.
The minister said the Women Farmers Empowerment Project aims to form 200 producer groups and provide technical support in the financial year 2024-2025.
Pay attention to youth and religious places
The budget has allocated Rs 4,000 crore for free distribution of tablets and smartphones to the youth.
Rs 2,057 crore has been allocated for Ganga Expressway Project, Rs 2,500 crore for preparations for Kumbh Mela 2025, Rs 100 crore for overall development of Ayodhya and Rs 150 crore for Maheshwar 2025 Expansion of Mickey International Airport. Ayodhya, Rs 1,150 crore for construction works of Jewar International Airport, Gautam Budh Nagar, Rs 150 crore to set up NIFT in Varanasi, Rs 200 crore for Lucknow-Hardoi PM large integrated textile and apparel park.
Focus on agricultural growth
The Uttar Pradesh government’s budget for the next financial year has set a target of 5.1% growth for the state’s agriculture sector.
The budget has allocated Rs 460 crore for three new agriculture-related schemes.
Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna announced three plans to boost the agriculture sector.
One of the schemes, the National Agricultural Development Programme, will allocate Rs 200 crore.
Another Rs 200 crore has been allocated to the World Bank-assisted UP Agris scheme.
The state finance minister said Rs 600 million has been allocated under the third scheme for the installation of automatic weather stations – automatic rain gauges – in blocks and villages.
He further said that Chief Minister Khet Suraksha yojna (Farm Safety Scheme) is also being launched with an allocation of Rs 50 crore.
It has also been proposed to allocate Rs 2,400 crore to provide power to private tube wells of farmers at concessional rates. The amount is 25% higher than the same budget provided for this financial year.
Khanna said an allocation of Rs 449.45 crore has been proposed for the implementation of Prime Minister Kusum Yojana, which is more than double the current fiscal allocation.
(with PTI input)
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