Return of the Language Row

Return of the Language Row
Marathi can never be considered for the official language status in Goa
By R. Cabral


If many saw Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh's maiden national budget as a populist exercise aimed at taking BJP's tally to around 300 at a likely mid-term Lok Sabha poll in the immediate future, Manohar Parrikar in Goa has signalled his readiness for such an eventuality by unfolding yet another virtually tax-free, populist but undoubtedly a growth oriented budget.
In his third consecutive budget, which has spared the common man from any fresh levies, Chief Minister Parrikar has tried to further widen the scope of budget exercise, which several of his predecessors had turned into a mere annual ritual.
With employment schemes galore, Parrikar is consistently broad-basing his constituency by targeting the younger generation, which he began last by mooting the innovative training cum employment scheme. Seen from purely a vote-bank perspective, Parrikar is consolidating his political base through every budget by reaching to diverse sectors and segments of the population like youth, senior citizens, women, backward communities which, by and large, remained beyond its scope hitherto. Be that as it may, in no way that can undermine Parrikar's political acumen and fiscal skills at piecing together yet another budget full of novel schemes and innovative concepts.
The budget for 2003-04 has hiked excise on liquor marginally and given further incentives to tourism sector by extending the luxury tax off-season tariffs from four months to six months, waived interest and penalty on sales tax overdue, etc. However, he has targeted the high end hospitality industry by seeking to amend the Gambling Act to discourage gambling by restricting the entry of "vulnerable strata of the society" by slapping a Rs.200 per individual entry fee on places of gambling and casinos. He has proposed to enhance the licensing and registration fees under the Tourist Trade Act and to bring in more activities under its purview and ensure better regulation.
In the Rs.3155crore budget, the Chief Minister has tried to concentrate on debt and expenditure management for the tiny State by ostensibly trying to keep borrowing level under control. Goa will implement the much publicised value added tax (VAT) from July1, 2003 by simultaneously abolishing existing entry tax except for petroleum products. All other exemptions will also remain operative till the introduction of VAT. A novel insurance cum gratuity scheme has been introduced for sales tax dealers registered with the department.
In order to help cinema theatres to make them financially viable, the government has reduced the entertainment tax from present 60% to 40%. In a "soft" budget, otherwise, liquor has borne the brunt of marginal dose of taxation. Parrikar has tried to rationalise structure of excise duties and augment revenues by making certain changes in the existing rate structures in various categories of the liquor including IMFL and beer. A health surcharge of 1% will be imposed on the excise duty as well as license fees and the proceeds will be channelled to support and encourage setting up of de-addiction centres by voluntary organisations.
Taking the angle of social cost of growing liquor addiction, the government has sought to discourage the proliferation of the liquor outlets by enhancing application fee for new licenses steeply, but spared the tourism areas. Advertisements promoting all liquor products will be strictly banned by amending the relevant laws.
Extending the "user charge" concept for services provided by government agencies -for those who can afford to pay- introduced by him successfully in last two budgets, Parrikar has introduced nominal fees in the health care system, especially for the advanced diagnostic facilities provided in government
hospitals. The Chief Minister advocates "user charges" concept to imbibe a sense of accountability in the government departments vis-à-vis the citizens.
A relief to the housing sector has been accorded by reducing the Stamp Duty on properties to 5% from 8% and the co-operative sector, which had been exempted from it, will now have to pay 2.5%. In the sphere of higher education, the budget has sought to revise fees structure of colleges to partially cover the increasing costs incurred to provide requisite infrastructure. As a revenue generating measure, the government will tax all kinds of lotteries including on-line ones at 20%. A cess on use of government property to lay cables by various service providers including telecom and cable operators is also on the cards.
One striking feature of this budget with an uncovered deficit of Rs.5.12 crore, is its massive thrust on retention, generation and encouragement of employment in sectors like agriculture, animal husbandry, apart from industries. This is sought to be done through a three-pronged strategy of retention of employment in the traditional sectors such as agriculture and allied activities by making them remunerative, creation of large scale employment by providing incentives to industries to employ people on a sustainable basis, and encoura-gement to self employment. He has proposed to set up "Krishi ghars" which will act as collection, sorting, storage and selling centres for agriculture and horticulture products at various locations.
The budget has given a lot of emphasis on self employment opportunities in traditional occupations by proposing to set up of an "Employment Board" which would provide guidance cum placement facilities for those sections who are otherwise not eligible for employment in government or other organisations, training facilities in various semi skilled activities like hair cutting, tailoring, plumbing, masonry, tourist guides etc, through government establishments are part of the budget proposals.
Talking of state revenues, Parrikar claimed that the revenue receipts of the State have registered a handsome increase of almost 58% during the period of last three years. On the non-tax front, a phenomenal increase of more than 200 per cent in just three years has been achieved thanks to an agreement with Power Trading Corporation (PTC) for sale of surplus power and successful re-negotiation of the power purchase agreement with Reliance Salgaocar Power Corporation Limited (RSPCL).
The budgetary allocations to various departments have been hiked considerably. There is no doubt that the Plan expenditure has increased consistently over the last two years from Rs.251.69 crore in 1999-2000 to around Rs. 593 crore in the current year. Parrikar said that this increase has been achieved with a much lower proportion of increase in borrowings. The net fiscal deficit, which is a broad indicator of loans taken for defraying current expenditure has increased marginally from Rs.412.86 crore in 2000-01 to Rs 415.27crore in the revised estimates of the current year.
The only area of concern has been the revenue deficit, which has increased marginally from Rs.88.61 crore, as projected, to Rs.104.48 crore at the revised estimate stage. The Chief Minister intends to eliminate revenue deficit completely by the year 2004-05.
Generation of sustainable employment has been made the central focus of Goa's industrial policy with a provision of Rs.33 crore towards several schemes like "employment subsidy scheme" for industries which provide employment to local youth, "share capital contribution to local entrepr-eneurs and self employed", "venture capital contribution scheme" and an "interest subsidy" scheme. A Rs.8 crore provision has been made for clearing old capital investment subsidy.
The "Cyberage Age Student" scheme, introduced last year under which government has distributed 1500 personal computers to science students of XI, will be extended to all streams of XI students by expanding its cope to include supply of educational software. Internet connectivity at a nominal rate is also being considered for inclusion. A budget provision of Rs.25 crore has been made for this purpose. The "Mid School Meal" scheme will be implemented in the coming year in more talukas.
The infrastructure development scheme to assist schools for development of infrastructure is also being extended to the colleges during the next year. All government primary schools will be provided with drinking water and toilet facilities.
In order to protect the workers from severe financial distress arising out of retrenchments, the government will launch a new scheme called "Retrenchment Workers' Assistance Scheme". As an indication of his government's commitment to reduce vehicular pollution, he proposes to make all transport vehicles of more than 15 years age go off the roads from 1st October 2003. A "green cess" on non-transport vehicles which are more than 15 years old has been proposed.
Serious about fiscal management, Parrikar has introduced a novel concept of online cash management system connecting Directorate of Accounts and Finance Department as management of expenditure is an important aspect of control of expenditure.
The Chief Minister intends to peg fiscal deficit to below 3 per cent on a permanent basis. As the proportion of tax and non-tax revenue has improved steadily from around 53 per cent in 2000-01 to 60 per cent in the revised estimates for 2002-03, in the next fiscal year he expects this figure to increase to 62 per cent. Consequently, the borrowings as a percentage of receipts will come down from 35 per cent to 26 per cent during the same time frame. On the expenditure front,p the proportion of salaries, wages and other establishment expenditure has dropped from 41 per cent in 2001-02 to 37 percent in 2002-03 (RE). He has promised to bring it down to 36 per cent during the year 2003-04.

(Goa Today/April 2003)