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Manpreet secures vote on account for 4 months
WSN network
CHANDIGARH: With
the Punjab government proposing to present the full budget for
2009-10 after the Lok Sabha elections, Finance Minister Manpreet
Singh Badal presented
a vote-on-account for the first four months of the next
financial year in the state Assembly.The fund requirement for the
state’s expenditure from April to July 2009, Rs 11,395.23 crore, was
approved by the House, as the Finance Minister gave his reasons for
not presenting a full budget. The amount approved is almost
one-third of the 2008-09 budget allocation for the Plan and
Centrally sponsored schemes plus the revised estimates for non-plan
allocations, the Finance Minister stated, adding that no new
expenditure had been included in the vote-on-account.
The sector-wise allocation for the expenditures had also been
kept on the pattern of 2008-09. Justifying a voteon- account instead
of a full budget, the minister said the state government had taken
the cue from the Union government, which too presented only an
interim budget in view of the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. Pointing
out that the state’s Annual Plan for 2009-10 had not been finalised
so far, he said even the Fifth Pay Commission had not submitted its
report to the state government. “We need to examine and approve its
recommendations before making necessary budgetary provisions to
implement those,” he said.
11
March 2009
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