Shillong, March 9: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said on Wednesday that for the first time, the MDA government is focusing on a ‘gender budget, a youth budget and a sustainable development goals budget’.
Gender budget
Presenting the budget for 2022-23 in the Assembly, the chief minister said under maternal and child health and women self-help groups, combining all the investments being proposed for women for 2022-23, the size of the gender budget comes to Rs 2,495 crore. This constitutes around 13 per cent of the total budget and it is 30 per cent higher than the allocation in the current financial year.
Youth budget
The chief minister, who is also holding the finance portfolio, allocated Rs 1,363 crore as youth budget.
This constitutes about 7 per cent of the total budget size and focuses on youth, employment, entrepreneurship and sports for excellence and cultural initiatives.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) budget
The chief minister said this year, the SDG budget has been formulated for the achievement of sustainable development goals.
Out of a total expenditure estimate of Rs 18,881 crore, Rs 9,182 crore will be spent on the improvement of various SDG indicators.
This is an increase of about 19 per cent over the current financial year, the chief minister said
Deficit budget
Summing up the allocations, the chief minister presented a deficit budget of Rs 1,849 crore, which is around 4.5 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).
The deficit budget is calculated from the estimated total expenditure of Rs 17,917 crore, excluding repayment of loans minus total receipts of Rs 16,068 crore excluding borrowings.
The chief minister estimated the total receipts at Rs 18,700 crore, of which the revenue receipts are estimated at Rs16,035 crore and capital receipts at Rs 2,665 crore. “Excluding borrowings of Rs 2,632 crore, the total receipts are estimated to be Rs 16,068 crore”, he said.
On the expenditure side, he has estimated the total expenditure at Rs 18,881 crore, of which the revenue expenditure is estimated at Rs 15,376 crore and capital expenditure at Rs 3,505 crore. “Excluding repayment of loans of Rs 964 crore, the estimated total expenditure is Rs 17,917 crore. Interest payments for 2022-23 is estimated at Rs 1,110 crore and pension payments at Rs 1,469 crore”, the chief minister added.
