Mokokchung Times News
Mokokchung | March 23
Nagaland Budget 2022-23 introduced two new proposals by the Rio Government although the financial year 2021-22 concluded with a deficit of Rs. 2363 crore. However, claiming it to be an outstanding achievement, CM Rio lauded the improvement of 316.42 crore from the initially estimated 2,679.46 crore deficit.
He also mentioned that the last quarter of 2021-22 witnessed a growth of 547.10 crore in receipts under share of central taxes and duties and a growth of 42.45 crore in States revenue over the Budget estimates. But despite the recovery, the CM admitted that the state was still struggling to neutralize the loss of 925.42 crore during 2019-20 and 1341.99 crore during 2020-21.
Over what can be seen as a move to recover from those losses, this year’s budget sees a major push towards infrastructural development on Agri and allied sectors and rural development, which are laudable. It’s a given fact that the state’s main economy is based on agriculture and its allied sectors and development is not complete without the development of rural areas. However, on second thought, the government’s announcement of big budgets on paper has always been impressive – it’s just, oftentimes, the spending finds no tangible conversion in reality and the resources spent hardly finds any visibility on ground.
The Rio government also introduced ‘Chief Minister’s Micro Finance Initiative’ and has earmarked 65 crore for this scheme to provide affordable credit to farmers, self-help groups and farmer-producer organizations for which he has proposed to remove the stamp duty on crop loans. Another major initiative the Rio government has introduced is the ‘Chief Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme’ to provide coverage up to Rs 5 lakh per annum per family, irrespective of income. Once again, these are laudable and look refreshing on paper as for the first time, we see an allocation of such schemes under the Chief Minister’s name.
It can also be noted that there is no mention of funds or aids for MSME sectors this time and could possibly imply that the government’s major goal is to strengthen the Agri-allied forces while PM-DevINE can stimulate this approach in terms of logistics for export and transportation if things go according to plan.
Although the outcomes of the budgets cannot be judgednow, the upsetting trend is that the ruling government is known for pumping money without analyzing and assessing the target sector properly and imposing their implementations without appropriate ground research. An example of such an attempt would be the ‘tractor subsidy scheme’ which in return only irked a lot of farmers as they did not want those tractors while the ones who actually needed the tractors were deprived.
The 2023 Budget finds no new tax announcement which is a welcome policy. In fact, some positive allocation includes the 18 crore outlay to the power sector and the special emphasis on projects that aim at generating power in the state. The clearance of a 24MW hydro project at Zungki and 42 MW at Lower Tizu which is a project in collaboration with Asian Development Bank are positive key takeaways. Also, resolving the landowner issue in 186MW hydro power project at Hakchang village in Tuensang district and 27MW thermal project at Tuli are factors that can turn the tide around for Nagaland whose power purchase worth currently stands at 461.62 crore.
The setting up of a 5MW solar plant under the Department of New and Renewable Energy and the 20 MW solar power project in Ganeshnagar, and the initiation towards Green Village are some refreshing allotments that show signs of moving towards a greener and healthier environment. However, the beneficial outcome of this will depend on its effective implementation, including the basics like solar street lighting, its management and other related activities.
Unfortunately, the department of science and technology received a meager 3 crore allocation with no mention of funds allocated for research and development, as usual. Depressingly enough, the government continues to ignore the research and development sectors which are definitely not in line with the current trend of attempting to become self-reliant. Agriculture, horticulture and every other sector can only flourish with adequate research and development.
Research and Development is the backbone of a State’s economy as innovation and development drives a State to become self-reliant. Thus, in this regard, despite the huge hue and cry towards an economically self-reliantstate, it appears that Nagaland, once again, might stumble in the race towards self-reliance.
The budget also mentions the allocation of 4.14 crore for the construction of the ongoing High Court Complexes which is a much awaited project as Nagaland gets its separate high court.
In a nutshell, the budget is innovative and appears to be an echoing success because of big budget allocations on paper. However, unless the implementation is done effectively and the resources deployed are managed properly, the printed figures on the paper will remain just that.
Therefore, it is not for the government alone, but the civil servants, the authority in-charge of various departments together with the civil society and its various organizations that must work hard in making sure that any implementation benefits the targeted sectors. Much effort must also be given in creating awareness during the execution of any scheme, especially while dealing with the farmers.