Mubashir Bukhari
Srinagar (NVI): The first budget of Jammu and Kashmir after being converted into a Union Territory will be presented in the Parliament session resuming tomorrow.
This will be the UT’s first budget to be presented in the Parliament after the abrogation of Article 370, in August last year.
The J&K Reorganisation Act passed by Parliament on August 6 bifurcated the State into two Union Territories – J&K (with a legislature) and Ladakh (without legislature).
The budget will be presented by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in both the Houses of Parliament in the second week of March.
J&K and Ladakh will have two separate budgets since both these regions have been converted into two UTs. “The annual budget of Jammu and Kashmir was set to cross Rs 1.2 lakh crore figure,” officials said.
Ladakh will have separate budget-cum-funding from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs like other UTs of the country without Legislature.
Earlier, the UT’s Finance Department directed all Administrative Departments and Head of Departments (HoDs) to start the preparations for the annual budget of 2020-21.
The annual budget for 2019-20 was passed in December last year during the Governor’s rule with the State Administrative Council (SAC) headed by Governor Satya Pal Malik approving the budget estimates as well as revised estimates.
During the past few years, the annual budget is being approved in the month of January. The last budget by a political government was introduced and passed in the State Legislature in January-February session in 2018 by the then Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu.
During current financial year of 2019-20, Jammu and Kashmir’s budget was to the tune of Rs 88,911 crore.
Sources said the Union Territory administration has held wide-ranging discussions with all Government Departments and senior functionaries to ascertain their requirements for the next financial year before giving a final touch to the budgetary proposals.
The 15th Finance Commission has already recommended one per cent share in the divisible pool of taxes for the newly created Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh for the financial year 2020-21, thus retaining the devolution formula of the earlier Commission.
