In
his Budget speech, Dr Walia referred to the First Human
Development Report released in 2006, and said in keeping with
the spirit of that report, “the theme of the Budget is to
improve the well-being of the poor as a fundamental to
ensuring a better life not just for them but also for us.”
There
are several social welfare benefits for families living below
the poverty line. The old age pension scheme has been
increased from Rs 600 to Rs 1,000 per month. The government
will also provide unemployment dole for the disabled.
Moreover, people earning more will now be eligible to social
schemes including old age and widow pension, cases of widow
remarriage or to the disabled who wish to buy aids and
appliances. Earlier, these schemes were available only to
those who earned Rs 48,000 per year. This income ceiling has
been raised to Rs 60,000 per year.
Food
subsidies and ration will now be given to those earning upto
Rs 1 lakh a year. This will benefit families above the poverty
line. To “protect the interests of the economically weaker
sections against increase in retail prices” of arhar and
channa dal, the poor will continue to receive a subsidy of 25
per cent from the government. The government will also
implement the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana or health
insurance upto Rs 30,000 per year for the poor.
The
2008-09 Budget — with an outlay of Rs 1,000 crore more than
last year as recommended by the Planning Commission — has
good news for the power sector. Dr Walia announced that the
government will waive as much as Rs 2,539 crore in arrears
which was to be collected from private consumers by discoms.
Dr Walia said: “These arrears have accumulated from the time
of the Delhi Vidyut Board. When power distribution was
privatised in 2002, discoms had to recover Rs 4,972 crore from
consumers. But the total amount was never realised. We have
decided to waive the rest, and this will benefit nearly 5.2
lakh private consumers.” However, arrears of government
departments have not not been waived.
The
government will further provide a subsidy to all domestic and
agricultural consumers for one year “to neutralise” the
tariff hike announced by the new multi-year, retail tariff
order of the DERC. Walia said around 23 lakh domestic
consumers and 9,410 agricultural consumers will come under its
ambit. The government will also provide Rs 409 crore as power
subsidy to its consumers this year. Last year, the figure was
Rs 75 crore.
Though
the plan outlay for 2008-09 has been kept at Rs 10,000 crore,
the government expects to spend as much as Rs 20,200 crore, of
which 87 per cent will be covered by the Delhi Government and
13 per cent will be borne through Central assistance. While
there are no new taxes this year, the Value Added Tax (VAT)
has been reduced on several items.
VAT
is that
*
VAT on locks, weights and measures reduced from 12.5 per cent
to 4 per cent.
* VAT on Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) and electronic chokes
down from 12.5 to 4 per cent.
* VAT on all categories of namkeens and sweetmeats reduced
from 12.5 to 4 per cent.
* VAT on fibre boards and particle boards made from
agricultural waste like bagasse down to 4 per cent.
