Gujarat budget 2017-18 to be presented on February 21

Gandhinagar: Budget session of Gujarat assembly will begin on February 20. Finance minister Nitin Patel will present budget for financial year 2017-18 on February 21. This will be the last budget before general elections of Gujarat assembly scheduled to take place in December this year. This will also be the first budget of Vijay Rupani led government. The budget session is generally about one month long due to one-by-one discussion on demands for various departments. The position of government is tight this year ahead of budget due to 7th pay commission implementation that has put Rs 8500 crore burden, toll tax waiver that has put Rs 250 crore burden, fix-pay hike which has added Rs 1300 crore burden and purchase of groundnut at support price that has added Rs 680 crore burden to exchequer. As this is election year, government will be under pressure to announce a populist budget. At the same time it will not be in position to ease the tax structure due to added burden mentioned above.

DeshGujarat