Four days after Assam’s BJP-led government tabled a Bill in assembly proposing regulations on the slaughter of cows, sale of beef and transportation of cattle, the state’s first woman finance minister on Friday gave prominence to cows and buffaloes in her maiden budget speech.
“It is a proud moment for us as the state’s first woman finance minister presented her maiden budget today. I would like to congratulate Neog for a people-friendly tax-free budget that also focuses on our key election promises,” said chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Presenting a tax-free budget, Ajanta Neog, a former Congress minister who joined BJP just ahead of the assembly polls this year, also indicated how the government planned to fulfil the party’s poll promise of waiving off microfinance loans and creating 100,000 jobs.
The minister mentioned that Assam would now introduce the use of sex-sorted artificial insemination to increase births of female calves in cattle and buffalo farms in order to benefit dairy farmers.
“It would control the birth of scrub bulls as 80% to 90% of all births would be female calves. It shall help meet the ever-increasing demand for milk in the state,” said Neog.
This year, the government proposed to cover 50,000 cattle and buffaloes with the use of 125,000 doses of sex-sorted semen procured from reputed sources across the country.
“With a 30% conception rate, at least 12,000 female calves are expected to be born in the first year itself. The scheme will be continued by inseminating 50,000 animals annually for the next four years. Due to this, milk production will get a massive boost and will have a positive impact on the economy,” she said.
The government also proposed to buy 1500 Murrah buffaloes, support 10 dairy entrepreneurs and provide seed money to 200 dairy cooperative societies with a budget outlay of ₹4 crore.
On Monday, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tabled the Assam Cattle Preservation Bill, 2021 which sought to ban the transport of cattle within the state from other states to Assam and the other way round.
It also proposed a ban on the sale of beef in areas where non-beef eating communities are in majority and within a radius of 5 kilometres from temples and other Hindu religious institutions.
Friday’s budget earmarked a sum of ₹7,500 crore to fulfil the BJP’s election promise of providing relief to around 2.6 million borrowers who had taken loans from microfinance institutions.
Neog also gave details of how the government proposed to provide 100,000 jobs promised by the BJP in its election manifesto. Most of the jobs would get created in the police (nearly 28,000), education (28,000), health (9,000) and animal husbandry and veterinary (7000) departments.
The government also announced an increase of monthly financial benefit provided to women from ₹830 to ₹1,000 as part of the Orunodoi, the biggest flagship beneficiary scheme of the state that covers over 2 million households. It was also decided to increase the number of beneficiary households under the scheme by another 636,000.
“We have nearly 6.5 million households in the state and Orunodoi would cover 2.6 million or nearly 40% of them. I have earmarked ₹1,800 crore for the scheme this year,” Neog said.
The budget earmarked ₹100 crore for the newly created department of indigenous faith and culture which will seek to preserve and propagate the unique languages, cultures, religious customs and rituals, attires, food habits, folk beliefs and traditions of indigenous communities and ethnic groups.
Thirteen new roads as part of Asom Mala, repair of 1,000 kilometres of the nearly 4500 kilometre-long embankments along rivers meant to prevent floods, setting up of 1,000 new models ‘Anganwadi Kendras’ are part of the budget plans along with mobile phones to nearly 800,000 needy students to help with their studies.
The budget also announced the formation of a new district at Tamulpur, support to children who lost their parents to Covid-19 and also to women who lost their husbands to the disease. Setting up of 5 new medical colleges and 10 commando battalions are also included in the budget.
Neog announced a financial assistance of ₹1 lakh each to the next of kin of all those killed due to Covid19. Till Friday, the state had recorded 4961 deaths due to the disease.
Assam’s gross state domestic product (GSDP) in 2015-16 at variable prices was ₹227, 959 crore. It increased to ₹351,318 crore during 2019-20. The percentage growth during the period was 11.22%. Of the ₹99,418 crore budget outlay in 2019-20, ₹82,488 crore was spent, which was an expenditure of 83%.
The budget estimate of 2021-22 shows a receipt of ₹107,317 crore under the consolidated fund of the state. After adding receipt of ₹182,253 crore under the public account and ₹200 crore from the contingency fund, the aggregate receipts amount to ₹289,770 crore.
The aggregate expenditure for the year is estimated at ₹289,367 crore. Though the estimated transactions in the year are expected to result in a surplus of ₹403 crore, due to an opening deficit of ₹969 crore at the start of the year, the budget deficit is expected to be ₹566 crore at the end of the year.
Neog informed that during 2020-21, the state collected ₹14,645 crore in taxes as against ₹14,967 crore during the previous year. During the first quarter of the current fiscal, the state had collected ₹3501 crore against ₹1920 crore during the same period last year.
“We are totally disappointed with the budget as it neglects the sufferings of millions affected by Covid and the poor state of the economy,” said former minister and senior Congress MLA Rockybul Hussain.
