Tax-free deficit budget for Tripura

AGARTALA, JULY 10. The Tripura Finance Minister, Mr. Badal Chowdhury, today presented a tax-free Rs. 2373.85 crore deficit budget in the State Assembly. It shows a deficit of Rs. 134.20 crore besides an opening balance of Rs. 89.50 crore.

Presenting the budget, Mr. Chowdhury said that the main thrust was given to the development sector. Recognising that the State had been facing severe infrastructure gap, the Government had decided to set up an infrastructure development fund with a corpus fund of Rs. 10 crore to finance priority infrastructure projects, the Minister told the House.

To meet liabilities the Government had decided to constitute a guarantee redemption fund with an initial corpus of Rs. 10 crore. As per figures of the Accountant General, Tripura, the amount of guarantee given by the Government to its institutions was Rs. 63.82 crore as on March 31, 1999. As the institutions which had taken loan against these guarantees were not in a position to service their loans, the Government had to shoulder this liability.

The Minister said the deficit, however, was expected to be covered by the anticipated non-plan gap grant on the basis of the report of the Eleventh Finance Commission and the anticipated increase in normal Plan assistance after finalisation of the Plan size of the current financial year. ``Also we intend to effect some economy by appropriate expenditure management,'' Mr. Chowdhury pointed out.The total budget size during the current financial year is Rs. 2373.85 crore as compared to Rs. 1874.06 crore in 1999-2000, indicating an increase of 26.67 per cent.

- UNI

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