Chief minister of Puducherry -V Narayanasamy on Wednesday presented a tax-free budget of Rs 8,425 crore for the financial year 2019-20 for the UT in the legislative assembly.
While presenting the budget the CM said that the territory must mobilize 65 per cent (Rs 5,435 crore) of the budget from its own resources while it will receive 22 per cent (Rs 1,890 crore) as central assistance including centrally-sponsored schemes.
The remaining 13 per cent (Rs 1,100 core) will be met from open market borrowings and loans from central financial institutions.
A major portion of the financial resources will be utilized to meet the committed expenditure such as salaries, pension, loan and interest payments,said the minister.
The government will allot Rs 1,896 crore (22 per cent) for salaries, Rs 930 crore (11 per cent) for pensions and Rs 1,550 crore (18 per cent) for repayment of loans and payment of interest and Rs 1,250 crore (15 per cent) for power purchase. Other major expenditures include old-age pension and allied welfare measures of Rs 573 crore (7 per cent) and grant-in-aid to public sector undertakings and cooperative institutions of Rs 889 crore (11 per cent).
Narayanasamy said the government will launch a new scheme to extend subsidies to 15,000 domestic consumers for the erection of solar panels to generate solar energy of 1KW to 3KW, reports ET.
These households will generate 4.5 crore units of solar power and the power charges will come down by Rs 95 to Rs 400 per month per domestic consumer.
The central electricity authority has accorded technical clearance for strengthening transmission and distribution networks at a cost of Rs 983 crore. The joint electricity regulatory commission has accorded approval for the transmission and distribution works at a cost of Rs 550.35 crore for the control period financial year 2019-20 to financial year 2021-22. On successful completion of the project, the transmission and distribution losses will be brought down to the desired level of 10 per cent.
Narayanasamy announced cash awards for the students bagging medals in national school games (gold Rs 25,000, silver Rs 15,000 and bronze Rs 12,000 for individual events and gold Rs 12,000, silver Rs 8,000 and bronze Rs 5,000 for team events).