Nagaland CM briefs media after presentation of Budget for 2019-20

February 25, 2019 495 Views No Comment

Source: DIPR

Chief Minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio while holding a press conference with media after presentation of budget stated the budget for 2019-20 is a people friendly budget as the budget did not impose any new taxes or placed any additional burden on the common people in order to generate revenue.

On Tourism sector, he mentioned that the impact of the Hornbill Festival 2018 indicated that the 10 day festival had generated revenue of about Rs. 62.88 crores and created 8715 jobs. Keeping this in mind, the Chief Minister said that the festival has been extended in all districts through the Mini Hornbill festivals so that the economic benefits from tourism will percolate down to every nook and corner of the state.

On Nagaland start-up policy, he said the policy will create a culture of entrepreneurship promote creativity and innovation among the youth with a target of at least 500 start-ups in the next five years. Under this, eligible start-ups will get concession such as GST reimbursement for 3 years up to Rs. 5 lakhs per year, 50% reimbursement of broadband costs, power subsidy up to Rs. 10 lakhs a year, reimbursement of patent filing costs up to Rs. 2 lakhs for domestic patents and Rs. 5 lakhs for international patents and assistance of Rs. 5 lakhs for marketing and promotion for each start-up. Incubators will be supported with financial assistance of Rs. 25 lakhs as capital grants.

On Youth Resources & Sports, he mentioned that a comprehensive sports policy has been framed where development of football at the grassroots level in collaboration with the Bhaichung Bhutia Football Academy will be engaged in imparting trainings to our young boys. He also mentioned the four new programmes directly aimed at the students and the youth.

(i) The Chief Minister’s Good Governance Fellow (CMGGF)

(ii) The Chief Minister’s Meritorious Students Fellowship (CMMSF)

(iii) The Chief Minister’s Awards for Civil Service Aspirants (CMACSA)

(iv) The Chief Minister’s Young Leadership Programme (CMYLP)

The government is also introducing 4-year B.Ed. course in all the government colleges of Nagaland with the approval of the National College of Teacher Education, Rio stated. He also stated that the government is taking up measures to improve revenue collections through various measures such as increasing the registration of dealers under GST, implementing the system of Online payment of power bills, including introduction of pre-paid power meters and better monitoring of revenue collections in the transport sector.

On Employment sector, the Chief Minister reiterated that the job opportunity in our state has already reached the saturation point. However, new appointments still continues in spite of no post creation he regretted and added that to check this, the government has introduced PIMS to record every employee in the state and detect bogus appointments.

The budget for 2019-20 has provided an allocation of 112.74 crore to the social sector which comes to 18.51% of the total developmental outlay under State Resources (untied), he stated. Prior to introduction of GST in July 2017, the State’s Tax revenue stood at Rs. 510.76 crores which is 19.60% over the previous year. After introduction of GST Tax, revenue increase was Rs. 638.29 crore during 2017-18 a growth of 25% over the previous year. The estimated target for 2018-19 (RE) is Rs. 711.05 crores, a growth of 11.4% over the previous year.

For the year 2019-20, the government is estimating a growth of 9.72% over 2018-19.