Deficit budget for Madhya Pradesh

“Despite this,the year would end with a deficit of Rs 107.19 crore,” Raghavji said.

He said that revenue during the next financial year was expected to be Rs 69,913 crore,of which,Rs 28,311 crore would come from state taxes.

The minister said that it was the firm belief of the state government that the tax administration in Madhya Pradesh should be convenient for tax payers and its implementation should be done in an easy way.

Raghavji said that the implementation of VAT in the state have been computerised,because of which,it had become more transparent and convenient for the businessmen.

He said that in the budget for 2010-11,in order to make industries more competitive some of them were given exemption from entry tax and added that this will continue in the next financial year also.

The Finance Minister said that for making engineering industries and manufacturing sectors,including those of metal casting,ferrous and non-ferrous metals,iron and steel will continue to be exempted from entry tax.

The minister,who did not impose any new tax,announced that the rate of VAT on petrol and ATF and multi-stage storage of petrol and diesel would be reduced and this would result in a revenue loss of Rs 50 crore.

Raghavji said that as setting up of power projects was capital intensive,they were exempted from VAT at least in the initial stages.

He said that eight years back,when the BJP came to power in Madhya Pradesh,commercial tax on petrol and diesel was 28.75 per cent.

He said that right now the commercial tax on diesel in the state was 23 per cent,while it was proposed to reduce the VAT on petrol to 27 per cent.

Raghavji said that a provision of Rs 2,893 crore had been made in the next financial year for the police force,as the state government gives importance to maintaining law and order.

He said that in order to strengthen the police force,it was proposed to make recruitments to 6,255 new posts in the police department during 2012-13.

The finance minister said that a sum of Rs 119 crore would be spent on promoting tourism activities in the State during 2012-13.