Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma presented the budget Budget of the state for 2021-2022 in the State Assembly with a fiscal deficit of Rs 1,570 crore.

The chief minister, who holds the finance portfolio, told the House on Wednesday that the total receipts have been estimated at Rs 15,262 crore, which is less than the total expenditures estimated at Rs 16,832 crore.

Stating that the state has been taking steps to increase its own tax and non-tax revenue, the Meghalaya CM said for 2021-2022, he has estimated Rs 2,579 crore tax and Rs 694 crore non-tax revenue.

He also said the prospects for non-tax revenue collection for 2021-2022 are optimistic while mentioning about the e-auction process of extracted coal by the Coal India Limited (CIL) which will begin soon about 54,000 metric tons from East Jaiñtia Hills district and about 9,000 metric tons from South Garo Hills district.

The NGT committee had approved the auction of 2 lakh metric tons, out of 32 lakh metric tons of extracted coal.

“When fully auctioned, the extracted coal will generate a revenue of about Rs 350 crore. We expect to generate a significant part of this revenue in 2021-2022.

The increase in tax devolution and revenue-enhancing measures would help in mobilizing the much-needed resources to meet the development expenditure pegged at Rs 3,300 crore.

Features of the budget estimates:

? Total receipts at Rs 17,509 crore, out of which, revenue receipts are estimated at Rs 15,232 crore and capital receipts at Rs 2,277 crore out of which the borrowings of the state government is at Rs 2,247 crore.

? The total expenditure is at Rs 17,603 crore, of which the revenue expenditure is estimated at Rs 13,956 crore and capital expenditure is at Rs 3,647 crore.

? State’s share in the divisible pool of taxes has increased from 0.645% in the 14th Finance Commission to 0.767% in the Fifteenth Finance Commission for the period 2021-26.

? Share of central taxes is estimated at Rs 5,105 crore and the revenue gap grant is at Rs 1,279 crore. This is an increase of Rs 1,600 crore over the actual devolution of this year.

? Total Development expenditure is at Rs 8,350 crore and the Establishment expenditure is Rs 9,253 crore.

? Total salary is Rs 5,214 crore (inclusive of Grant-in-Aid salaries) and the total pension payment is at Rs 1,303 crore.

? The budget has a fiscal deficit of Rs 1,570 crore, which is around 4.07% of the GSDP.