Both Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where assembly elections are scheduled in late 2023, seem to have already started taking steps of pleasing all, as both states took big steps to woo government employees – a key chunk – in their respective annual budgets and decided not to impose any new taxes or hike the current ones.
Though MP is ruled by BJP and Chhattisgarh is ruled by Congress, the states seemed to take steps along similar lines.
While Madhya Pradesh announced a dearness allowance hike for government employees from 11 per cent to 31 per cent, Chhattisgarh announced the revival of the old pension scheme with provisions of lifelong pension and gratuity, becoming the second state after Rajasthan to do so.
In Madhya Pradesh, a Rs 3,736-crore revenue deficit budget worth Rs 2,79,237 crore was presented by Finance Minister Jagdish Devda amid huge disruption from the opposition Congress. The fiscal deficit in the state stands at Rs 55,111 crore.
The highlight of the budget was however the announcement of hike DA for government employees – a step that will hugely benefit about 7.5 lakh employees. There were also announcements of recruitment of 13,000 teachers, 6,000 constables under home department, increase in MBBS seats from 2,035 to 3,250 and others.
Though the government claimed to present a child budget for the first time, the provisions were not made separately. It was announced that Rs 27,792 crore or 10 per cent of the total budget will be spent on welfare of children under 12.
A provision of Rs 26,941 crore was made for scheduled tribe (ST) sub-plan while provision of Rs 19,020 crore was made under scheduled castes (SC) sub-plan. STs account for about 21 per cent while SCs account for about 16 per cent of the state's population.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan highlighted the fact that despite adverse conditions, the state had managed to achieve a growth rate of 19.7 per cent, which is highest in the country. He congratulated the finance minister for presenting what he termed as an 'all encompassing and universal' budget. “It is a budget that ensures balanced development of all the regions in the state and touches all sections of the society including housing for the poor, education for kids, drinking water and treatment facilities for all apart from farmers' welfare,'' Chouhan said.
Leader of opposition Kamal Nath, however, termed the budget as a bag of lies and an attempt to mislead people. “This is a budget to cheat the people with provisions only on papers. Fake dreams have been woven keeping the upcoming assembly polls in mind. There is no talk on the extent of implementation of the last budget, about employment promises or work done for farmers. The budget has nothing for anyone. The gist of the budget is expensive milk and edible oil and cheap liquor,” Nath said in a series of tweets.
Later, Nath also wrote to Chouhan, urging him to revive the old pension scheme for government employees in Madhya Pradesh along the lines of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Chhattisgarh budget revenue surplus
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who has retained the finance portfolio, presented a Rs 1,12,603-crore budget, with a revenue surplus of Rs 701 crore. However, the fiscal deficit stands at Rs 14,600 crore – 3.3 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). Fiscal deficit upto 4.5 per cent of GSDP is considered normal.
Interestingly, Baghel carried his documents in a briefcase made of cow dung, to highlight the focus of the government on cow-based economy. The bag has been made by a women's self-help group based in Raipur.
Though the highlight of the budget was revival of old pension scheme that will benefit about 2.95 lakh state government employees, Baghel also announced other measures and decisions like carving out six new tehsils, increasing the MLAs' discretionary funds to Rs 4 crore from Rs 2 crore per year and the honorariums of three-tier panchayat representatives, setting up of an anti-human trafficking bureau and establishment of a new cadre called 'district strike force' in the Maoist violence-hit Bastar region, to provide salary allowances and promotions to the assistant police constables.
Also, the decision to open Swami Atmanand excellence schools in Hindi medium was announced. The chief minister said that in the past three years, a decrease of 8.7 per cent in malnutrition has been achieved, with about 1.79 lakh pulled out of malnourished category from 2019 till now.
The CM said that a growth rate of Rs 11.54 per cent was expected in the state during 2022-23. The industrial growth rate is expected to be 15.44 per cent while that of service and agriculture sectors would be 8.54 and 3.88 per cent respectively.
