Nasir Azam
Srinagar, Mar 12 : Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman would unveil the Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory’s budget for the next fiscal in the Parliament on Monday (March 13). This would be the fourth budget of J&K UT in the Parliament after reorganization of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir in August 2019.
As per list of Lok Sabha’s business scheduled for tomorrow, a copy of which is in possession of news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the Union Finance Minister will present a statement showing the demands for grants in respect of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for the year 2022-23.
She will also present a statement showing the supplementary demands for grants- second batch for 2022-23.
The budget is being presented in the Parliament as law-making powers of Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory are vested with it in absence of an elected government in the UT.
This would be the fourth consecutive budget of J&K UT in the Parliament. The budgets of UT for 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 were unveiled in the Parliament by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
In June 2018, the Jammu & Kashmir came under Governor’s rule after BJP withdrew support to Mehbooba Mufti-led government citing deteriorating security situation in the state. The budget for 2019-20 was approved by the Governor-led State Administrative Council in December 2018 days before the erstwhile state came under President’s rule under Article 356 of the Constitution of India.
In the run-up to the budget, top officials of J&K’s Finance department are stationed in New Delhi over the past three days.
“ Director General, Budget MY Itoo and Joint Director Budget Shafat Yahya have already reached New Delhi. More officials are likely to join them tomorrow,” a senior official of Finance department told KNO.
He said the size of J&K budget for next fiscal would be more than1.15 lakh crore.
For the ongoing fiscal (2022-23), Jammu and Kashmir was granted budget of Rs 112950 crore.
In the Union budget for next fiscal, J&K has been allocated Rs 35581.44 crore, of which Rs 33,923 crore is central assistance. The central assistance is given mainly to the UT to meet its resource gap—(KNO)
