Gujarat's populist budget: Government reduced VAT and doubled insurance coverage under PMJAY-MA

Gujarat government today reduced VAT on CNG and PNG from 15 to 5 per cent and doubled the insurance coverage under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya-MA (PMJAY-MA) scheme from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. The government also announced that two gas cylinders will be provided free per year to the beneficiaries under Ujjwala scheme.

Gandhinagar:Keeping in mind the Lok Sabha election next year, the Gujarat government, on Friday, presented a 3.01 lakh crore budget without imposing any new taxes on the people. The BJP ruled state also slashed the Value Added Tax (VAT) on CNG and PNG from 15 to 5 per cent and doubled the insurance coverage under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya-MA (PMJAY-MA) scheme from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

With the promise to fulfil the commitments made by the party in the 2022 Assembly election manifesto, state finance minister, Kanu Desai said, "The government will spend Rs 5 lakh crore would be spent on creating infrastructure facilities in the state. The government would spend Rs 5 lakh crore for developing five state highways as high speed corridors". "Sports complexes would be set up in each of the districts and talukas while Rs 1066 crore will be spent under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) for providing houses to one lakh urban poor," he added.

Making major announcements like doubling the insurance coverage under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya-MA (PMJAY-MA) scheme from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and providing two gas cylinders free per year to the beneficiaries of the Ujjwala scheme, the finance minister said, "The budget was based on the pillars of development of all sectors of the society. A total of Rs 5580 crores have been allocated for social justice and empowerment, Rs 3410 crores for tribal development and Rs 2538 crores for labour and employment".

The finance minister also said that another Rs 43651 crores for education, Rs 15182 crores for health and family welfare, Rs 6064 crores for women and child welfare development, Rs 2165 crores for food and civil supplies and Rs 568 crores for sports and youth culture development have been allocated.

Announcing a budgetary surplus of Rs 916.78 crore, Desai said the the budget would pave the path of development for the next 25 years. The minister proposed a budgetary outlay of Rs 301,021 crore, which was 23.38 percent higher than the last fiscal.

Asserting that no new taxes have been imposed on the people, Desai said the government wants to increase the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) to over 42 lakh crore. He said that the government had to incur an additional expenditure of Rs 1000 crore to reduce reduce the burden of taxes from the people and provide relief to various sections of the society.

Other than this, the government allocated Rs10743 crores for panchayat namely rural housing, Rs 19685 crores for urban development and housing, Rs 8738 crore for energy and petrochemicals, Rs 20642 crores for development of roads and houses, Rs 3514 crores for development of ports and transport, Rs 3514 crores for water resources, Rs 6000 crores for water supply and Rs 2193 crores for science and technology. There was a budgetary allocation of Rs 8589 crores for industry and mining and Rs 21605 crores for agriculture and farmers welfare.