Chandigarh, Mar 11 (KNN) All Industries and Trade Forum (AITF) has accused the Punjab government for ditching the industries and not fulfilling their poll promises in the budget announced on Friday. 

Calling the budget baseless, Badish Jindal National President of AITF said the budget presented by Finance Minister Harpal Cheema was far away from the actual fiscal situation of the state.

Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema presented a Rs 1.96 lakh crore State Budget for 2023-24 in the Assembly on Friday. 

The budget size saw a 26 per cent increase over previous year’s budget with key area of focus on on agriculture, education, and health segments.

Speaking exclusively with KNN India, Jindal who is also the President of Federation of Punjab Small Industries Association (FOPSIA) said the state government is merely showing the big numbers on papers but the reality is different. 

He pointed out that the government even failed to fulfill the target of GST of 27 per cent and just closed the figure at 9.24 per cent, whereas national average was more than 15 per cent. 

“Once again the government has proposed an increase of around 22 per cent an income from GST has shown an increase from Rs 19,000 crore to 23,000 crore,” he said.

The VAT on petrol and diesel has decreased from Rs 6869 crore to Rs 6400 crore but to increase the income in budget the government shown its income to Rs 7600 crore during 2023-24 which is very impractical, said Jindal.

Further he expressed the disappointment of the industries as the state government failed to fulfil the promise of Rs 5 power to existing industries.

While the budget for power to existing industries is merely raised from Rs 2027 crore to Rs 2210 crore, he noted. 

Jindal blamed the government for putting the state into the trap in the name of subsidies to Industries as the subsidy budget for less than 100 industries increased from Rs 577 crore to Rs 1003 crore.

In the last year budget of 2022-23 the government proposed Rs 100 crore for focal point and then reduced this to Rs 60 crore in the revised budget with intimation to Industries. 

In the 2023-24 budget this was further reduced to Rs 50 crore, he pointed out. 

“This shows the non-seriousness of government with the concern of industries. Whereas on the other hand the government increased the promotion budget of Invest Punjab from Rs 50 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 75 crores in the year 2023-24,” he added.  (KNN Bureau)