STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Intending to present an ideal and visionary budget for fiscal 2022-23, the Finance Department in the state started budget preparations well ahead of time.
It will be the first full-fledged budget under the new government led by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Finance Minister Ajanta Neog will present the Budget on March 16. The Assam Legislative Assembly will pass the Budget on March 29.
The budget will have fund allocations for 80 grants of the 56 departments of the State Government. Neog has already discussed budget-related issues with all the departments. She has also taken stock of the implementation of budgetary schemes of the current financial year with the departments concerned. She has urged the departments performing poorly to speed up scheme implementation.
Even the Chief Minister himself has started budget discussions with various departments. He had marathon budget discussions with several departments on March 2. The Chief Minister will finalize all the new budgetary schemes for fiscal 2022-23.
In fiscal 2021-22, the budget outlay was Rs 1,00,700 crore. It rose to Rs 1,37,000 crore with the supplementary demands.
The ongoing budget discussion has revealed that PWD, Health and Finance departments performed better than other departments in implementing budgetary schemes in the current financial year. Discussions also revealed that the performance of the Handloom & Textile Department is below average.
The Budget session will start on March 14 and conclude on April 1, 2022.
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