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| Thursday, 9 October 2003 |
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Politics | |
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| Budget to benefit public servants, pensioners The Budget 2004 will be investment and development oriented, Finance Minister K.N.Choksy told the Daily News yesterday. The Budget will be presented in Parliament next month. Public officers, corporation employees and pensioners will also be beneficiaries, he said. The Minister presented the Appropriation Bill in Parliament yesterday. The total expenditure slated for 2004 will be Rs. 352 billion, of which Rs. 209 billion will be for recurrent expenditure and Rs. 143 billion for capital expenditure. Additionally there will be debt service repayment and pension payments in a sum of Rs. 313 billion. There is no reduction in outlay for Samurdhi, the fertiliser subsidy, school uniforms and textbooks. The total provision for foreign funded projects has been increased from Rs. 70 billion in 2003 to Rs. 89 billion in view of the enhanced foreign aid. This will be invested in road development, supply of power, enhancing agricultural production and development of irrigation. Consequent upon the Government's success in reducing interest rates, the Interest Bill for 2004 will be Rs. 121 billion as against Rs. 130 billion in 2003. This saving has been allocated to capital expenditure. The projected increase in revenue is Rs. 30 billion. Steps have been put in place to enhance revenue collection. According to a Finance Ministry release yesterday, the expenditure is for maintaining the Public Services and undertaking development work. The expenditure figures included in the Appropriation Bill do not include certain items of expenditure for which Parliamentary approval has already been granted under various laws such as those on re-payment of Public Debt, payment of Interest on Public Debt, Pension Payments etc., amounting to Rs. 313.8 billion. Therefore, the total expenditure that has to be incurred during the year 2004 will be Rs. 668.6 bn. On the receipts side, the revenue and foreign grants are estimated to be Rs. 356.1 bn. Hence, approval is sought by this Bill to borrow Rs. 312.5 bn from both domestic and foreign sources. Both the expenditure and revenue have been estimated on the existing basis without taking into consideration any policy change. Certain sectors such as highways, and water supply have been allocated more funds than was done in 2003 due to the inflow of foreign aid. Out of the estimated receipts of Rs. 356.1 bn tax revenue amounts to 81% while non-tax revenue and other receipts amounts to 19 per cent. Of the tax revenue, direct taxes amounts to 17.5 per cent while the remainder is from indirect taxes such as Value Added Tax, Import Duties, and Excise Duties. |
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