Govt paying inherited debts; still managing hike in capex: LG Sinha

Jammu, Feb 11: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Sunday stated that J&K was on a road to revolutionary economic transformation during the last five years, managing a quantum jump in GDP growth and hiked capex despite the burden of inherited debts worth Rs 28,000 Cr on account of power dues.

He said that the J&K Bank, which was running into losses worth Rs 1200 Cr a few years ago, was a visible example of this transformation by emerging as a buoyant institution with Rs 1300 Cr profits. “In 2024, we anticipate its profits rising to Rs 1800 Cr,” LG Sinha said.

The Lieutenant Governor was addressing a press conference on J&K (interim) budget 2024-25 here at the Convention Centre. Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, Principal Secretary Finance Santosh D Vaidya and the Director Information Jatin Kishore accompanied him in the presser.

“This was the fifth budget of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Since it was an interim budget so there was no big announcement. But it is in perfect sync with the avowed objective to induce changes to bring marginalised sections of the society into the mainstream. It aims at all inclusive growth. Our focus in the past five years has been to provide social security to our 70 percent agri-based society. This has been achieved through strict adherence to fiscal-prudence and special emphasis on hike in capital expenditure to accelerate growth,” he said, while referring to, what he said, significant hike in capex, growth in GST and all other sectors.

The Lieutenant Governor specifically mentioned that the budgetary allocation for sports in J&K was higher than that in Uttar Pradesh. He asserted that the budget reflected the needs and aspirations of the people of J&K and commitment of the UT administration for peace, progress and prosperity.

“The immediate goal is to accelerate the pace of economic development in the UT of J&K and make it multi-dimensional. Primarily, being a “growth-oriented” budget, it is in line with the endeavours of the UT government to double its economy in the next few years,” he said.

Enumerating key features of the budget, the Lieutenant Governor said, “The size of the budget for 2024-25 is Rs 1,18,728 Cr as against Rs 1,18,500 Cr in 2023-24. Revenue Receipt estimates for 2024-25 is Rs 97,861 Cr and Capital Receipt estimate is Rs 20,867 Cr. Revenue Expenditure for 2024-25 is pegged at Rs 80,162 Cr. Capital Expenditure contribution towards GDP is 14.64 percent and GDP for the year 2024-25 has been projected at Rs 2,63,399 Cr which shows a growth of 7.5 percent.”

Sharing details, he said that the total receipts in respect of Vote on Account for part of financial year 2024-25 are estimated at Rs 59,364 Cr excluding the provision for ways and means advances of Rs 16,568 Crore.

“These receipts include Rs 48,930 Cr as revenue receipts and Rs 10,434 Cr as capital receipts. Own revenues both tax and non-tax are estimated to be Rs 15,158 Cr. Rs 18,639 Cr is to flow as central assistance and Rs 8424 Cr as CSS and PMDP to the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. The total net expenditure is estimated to be Rs 59,364 Cr. This includes the estimated capital expenditure of Rs 19,283 Cr and the estimated revenue expenditure of Rs 40,081 Cr,” he said.

The Lieutenant Governor described good governance; strengthening grass-root democracy; promoting holistic and sustainable agriculture; promoting Jammu and Kashmir as an investment destination; employment generation; developing new tourism destinations; accelerated development & inclusive growth; women empowerment and social inclusion as focus areas.

Spelling out e-Governance initiatives for 2024-25, he said that e-office would be extended in all the offices and panchayats; physical verification units would be established at Jammu & Srinagar besides revitalization of Public Private Partnership (PPP) and Viability Gap Fund (VGF) cell in the Finance Department.

Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Internet of Things (IOT) would be implemented for effective delivery of services to the citizens by the Information Technology department, he said.