The Gujarat Finance Minister Kanu Desai presented the Gujarat Budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 in the State Assembly on Friday, giving a big push to infrastructure facilities.
The Finance Minister in his third consecutive budget, announced to spend approximately Rs 5 lakh crore in the next five years for creating world-class infrastructure facilities in the State. Desai stated that better infrastructure will attract new business and investment leading to an increase in productivity and competitiveness and will ultimately lead to a better standard of living.
With this the FM announced the provision of Rs 5,950 crore for the Narmada Project, which he said has proved to be a boon for the people and economy of Gujarat as through the project, water has become available for agriculture, two hydro-power stations with the capacity of 1,450 MW, which generated 6,000 crore units of power in the current year.
Provision of Rs 2,500 crore has been made for strengthening the rural infrastructure, Rs 1,391 crore under MNREGA, Rs 932 crore under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) and Rs 220 crore for Pradhanmantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana – Watershed Development Component.
Besides this, a provision of Rs 1,066 crore has been made to achieve the target of providing houses to approximately 1 lakh people during the next year under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Shehri.
Rs 905 crore has been allocated for metro projects in Ahmedabad and Surat.
Rise of Rs 34,457 crore in capital expenditure
Finance Minister Kanu said that a total budgetary outlay of Rs 301,021.61 crores has been proposed for the current discal. The Budget this year sees a significant increase of Rs 57,056.89 crore in allocations, 23.38 per cent higher than the previous fiscal, for quality investments in ensuring a brighter future for the State’s youth.
The plan for rapid development of Gujarat stands on 5 pillars — basic amenities, and social security for the poor and needy, development of human resources, creation of world-class infrastructure, boosting economic activities in agriculture, industry and service sectors, and green growth.
The Budget also sees unprecedented rise of Rs 34,457 crore in capital expenditire, which is 91 per cent more than the previous year. In her Budget speech, Desai said, “In this Amrit Kaal, this Budget will certainly help determine the direction of the state’s development over the next 25 years and will also contribute towards the making of a developed India.
