Chandigarh, March 10
Goods subject to VAT in Haryana will cost. Presenting his first Budget in the assembly today, Finance Minister Ajay Singh Yadav declared that a surcharge ranging from 0.25 per cent to 0.7 per cent would be imposed on VAT.
Yadav hopes to collect about Rs 300 crore per annum from the surcharge. This would be distributed between urban and rural local bodies in the ratio of 80:20. Among the items to cost more are electrical goods, sanitary fittings and petroleum products. A litre of petrol becomes dearer by six paise and that of diesel by 2 paise.
Yadav presented a Budget of a total deficit of Rs 3,912 crore, which, he said, was mainly because of the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission report, which entailed a salary burden of Rs 2,600 crore and pension and arrear bill of Rs 1,570 crore. He said the deficit was within the manageable limit of 4 per cent.
The Budget did not contain any other tax proposal. Yadav announced several new initiatives which the government planned to undertake-engaging NGOs in infrastructure and social sectors; an infrastructure development board and a public private partnership (PPP) mode of development.
