from daijiworld's special correspondent

Panaji, Mar 8: Goa government has tabled Rs 4409.97 crore revenue deficit budget with the special thrust on agriculture and infrastructure.

The budget, placed by chief minister Pratapsingh Rane ahead of elections, provides sops to the agriculture sector giving it a populistic touch. The budget has revenue deficit of Rs7.91 crore.

Boosting the agriculture growth from minus 0.9 to almost 7.7 per cent the chief minister unveiled a host of subsidies for agriculture and allied activities. "Additional financial liability of Rs 10 crore would be incurred on state government while we have made this subsidies more attractive this year," Rane said in his post-budget media interaction.

The state government has laid thrust on Public private partnership (PPP) for infrastructure creation in the state. While it spares commoners, the chief minister has imposed green cess on the electricity bills.

The state budget points out that the revenue deficit was reduced to Rs 21.85 crore in 2005-06. The revenue deficit anticipated in revised estimates 2006-07 is to the tune of Rs 34.86 crore while revenue deficit projected in budget estimates of 2007-08 is Rs 7.91 crore only. Actual fiscal deficit during 2005-06 was Rs 580.57 crore as against Rs 631 crore projected in budget estimate 2005-06.

The downward revision in the fiscal deficit in revised estimates 2006-07 is at Rs 688.46 crore as against budgeted estimate for 2006-07 of Rs 753.46 crore due to non-receipt of external loan assistance for water supply and sanitation.

The chief minister, in his 90-minute-speech, said that zero growth in fiscal deficit projected in budget estimate of 2007-08 at Rs 752.64 crore over budget estimate 2006-07. This includes low cost external loan assistance of Rs 75 crore for water supply and sanitation.

The budget also provided sops to poor and women and child. Rane decalred that the financial assistance under the Dayanand Social Security Scheme would be enhanced from Rs 750 to Rs 1000 per month.

He also opened up coffers for new buildings of anganwaddis with water and toilet facilities. Retirement benefits were also extended to anganwaddi workers under the budget.

The Congress led government sought to exempt commoners from the taxes and instead decided to concentrate on improvement in administrative efficiency, procedural simplifications, rigorous enforcement and complete computerisation in all the major revenue earning departments.

The chief minister also laid emphasis on quick disposal of appeals and registration cases , strengthening of luxury tax and entertainment tax wing of commercial tax department. He also sought to promote practise of issuing cash memos with emphasis on creating public awareness and interaction with dealers.

Admitting that bad industrial atmosphere is created after tax exemptions were allotted to hilly states, the chief minister today gave entry tax exemptions on machinery and equipment for new units and also to existing units who are investing at least 50 per cent or more on expansion in machinery and equipment.

The government sought to streamline the assessment of procedure of entry tax exemption in the pharmaceutical industry to ensure that only teh tax legitimately due is collected.

For the students, the state government exempted items like geometry boxes, colour boxes, crayons, chalk sticks, pencil sharpeners, writing instruments and pens costing less than

Rs 50, graph books exercise books and laboratory notebooks from levy of tax whihc is currently at four per cent.

Also religious and social significant items like sacred thread, religious pictures, not used as calanders, rakhi kirpan and prasadam which are currently taxed at four per cent were made tax-free.

Encouraging glass bottles in place of plastic bottles, the tax on mineral water in glass bottles is reduced from 12.5 per cent to four per cent while those in plastic bottles will remain at 12.5 per cent.