DIMAPUR, March 17 - Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang presented a full budget for 2016-17 for the State in the Assembly today.
Zeliang, who also holds the Finance portfolio, said the annual plan outlay for 2016-17 has been projected at Rs 3,924.47 crore with Rs 2,882.41 crore under Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), Rs 117.06 crore under NEC, Rs 230 crore NLCPR, Rs 115 crore EAP and Rs 580 crore under untied or flexible fund. The outlay for 2016-17 saw an increase of 8.35 per cent over last year.
Out of the annual plan outlay, allocation for social sector has been fixed at Rs 1,519.38 crore, which is 38.72 per cent of the total outlay, while for the economic sector Rs 1,903.01 crore has been earmarked, which is 48.49 per cent of the total outlay. For the general sector, the allocation has been raised to Rs 502.08 crore, which accounts for 12.79 per cent of the total outlay.
With better monitoring and control in place and also with the various austerity measures being worked out, the Chief Minister was hopeful of reducing the deficit by Rs 225 crore by the end of 2016-17. However, he said, this will be subject to the Government of India providing grant under share of Central taxes as projected in the budget for 2016-17 at the level of Rs 3,016.31 crore.
Zeliang informed the House that during the current year, the deficit has been reduced by a projected amount of Rs 123.36 crore from the opening deficit of Rs 1,542.71 crore. This is the first time in the recent history of the State where the deficit could be reduced to this extent during a single financial year. He thanked all his colleagues, departments and particularly the Finance department for making this possible.
He also spoke about taking certain measures to bring down the overhead expenditures. He said departments having excess employees shall not be allowed to recruit new employees even against resultant vacancies as was done in the case of School Education department.
Manpower management and relocation of employees from departments that have surplus to departments that require more manpower will be rationalised, he stated.
For internal revenue collection during the current year, the Chief Minister said the target has been put at Rs 665.06 crore as against last year�s Rs 593 crore.
