SHILLONG, MAR 28: The Khasi Hills Auotonomous District Council (KHADC) and the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) on Thursday passed their respective budgets with a promise to take measures for improving their revenue collection.
The KHADC has passed a Rs 215.36 crore full budget for the financial year 2019-2020 during its budget session which concluded here. The JHADC on the other hand approved a Rs 19.9 crore deficit budget for the year 2019-20.
The KHADC’s budget has a deficit of Rs 48,540 in view that the estimated expenditure at Rs 215,36,17,400 is higher than the revenue receipts of the Council which is estimated at Rs 215,35,68,860.
Earlier while tabling the budget at the first day of the session, KHADC deputy chief executive member Pyniaid Sing Syiem assured that the executive committee (EC) would take necessary steps to improve the revenue generation of the Council.
He informed that the Council has recently received Rs 34,97,35,000 as grant sanctioned by the Government of India for the Excluded Areas under Part IX & IX A of the Constitution of India for the year 2018-19. “We hope that the Centre will soon release the balance amount to the Council,” he said.
As for the special assistance of central plan scheme for the same year, he said that the Centre has also released the balance amount of Rs 9,66,68,000 and the implementation of schemes is on.
In his budget speech, JHADC chief Thombor Shiwat said the total receipts are estimated at Rs 148,67,41,200 while the estimated expenditure is at Rs 168,67,37,500.
“There is a deficit of Rs 19.9 crore,” he said while pointing out that this is much less compared to previous financial year in which the deficit was at Rs 21.68 crore.
Stating that the major revenue receipts of the Council is from royalty share on major minerals, Shiwat however said due to the NGT ban on coal mining in the state, the total receipts in 2018-19 have come down to Rs 42.89 crore compared to the previous FY at Rs 48.12 crore.
Similarly, the revenue from royalty share on minor minerals also came down to Rs 11.85 crore when compared to Rs 29.48 crore in 2017-18, he added.
In order to improve the revenue generation of the Council, the JHADC chief assured that the executive committee will take up with the state government on the need to consider increasing the royalty shares on major and minor minerals 50:50 basis.
According to him, at present the share on major minerals is only 25 percent for the Council while 75 percent for the government and 40:60 for minor minerals.
By Our Reporter
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