Meal for Rs. 5 to urban poor in Madhya Pradesh budget

Thursday, 02 March 2017 06:07 administrator
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The Hindu       02.03.2017 

Meal for Rs. 5 to urban poor in Madhya Pradesh budget

Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya presenting the budget in the Assembly in Bhopal on Wednesday.A.M.FaruquiA_M_Faruqui"  

Sops for widows, government employees announced

Meal for Rs. 5 to the urban poor, pension to widows and Seventh Pay Commission benefits to employees were key highlights of Madhya Pradesh’s Budget for 2017-2018 presented in the Assembly on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya presented a Rs. 1,85,564.27-crore budget, which goes to the polls in 2018, with a revenue surplus of Rs. 4596.40 crore

He hiked VAT on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) sold for fuelling at Indore and Bhopal airports, thus making the air travel dearer from these two cities.

“The State has remained a revenue surplus state since 2004-05 and the same situation is expected to continue in 2017-18. The fiscal deficit for 2017-18 is estimated to be Rs. 25688.97 crore, which is within the 3.5 per cent limit prescribed under the Madhya Pradesh Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2005,” said Mr. Malaiya, presenting his fifth Budget. “State Government employees will get the benefit of the Seventh Pay Commission from Jan 1, 2016, and will be paid hiked salaries from July 2017,” he said.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan later announced that meal will be provided to the poor for Rs 5 initially in four major cities.