Aizawl, March 23: Chief Minister Zoramthanga, who also holds the Finance portfolio, laid the 2004-05 budgets before the House Monday which has an estimated deficit of Rs 45451.44 lakh from a total demand of Rs 154083.06 or Rs 1540.83 crore.

The deficit for the revised estimate for the year 2003-04 also went up to Rs 31605.11 lakh from the original estimate of Rs 26638.37 lakh.

Explaining the reason the sudden escalation in the revised estimate deficit, Zoramthanga said the maintenance expenditure has been on the increase which had prevented the government from arresting the deficit gap.

'Our best effort for improving the state's resources to arrest the growth of our deficit gap has been deterred by the ever increasing requirement of maintenance expenditure,' he said.

As a result of the sharp difference in the budget estimate of 2003-04 and revise estimate of 2003-04, the estimated closing deficit for 2004-05 now stands at Rs 454.51 crore, he added.

In his budget speech, the chief minister said 15% of the revenue gap grant which had been withheld by the Centre because of the states failure to produce a 5% improvement in revenue deficit had 'crippled' the state's finances.

'As we are all aware, any resources mobilized by us are meager and do not represent even 10% of the requirement of the state.

To improve its finances, the state government has drawn up necessary programmes in line with Government of India's guidelines....

One such scheme, amongst others, is the mandatory 5% annual improvement of our revenue deficit to culminate at zero point in 2004-05, failing which the Government of India will withhold 15% of the Revenue Gap Grant recommended by the Eleventh Finance Commission,' Zoramthanga said.

Because no meaningful headway could be achieved in this regard, which the chief minister attributed to the 'ever increasing maintenance expenditure of the existing set up', 15% of the revenue gap grant had been withheld by the Centre.

'This has almost crippled the state's finances and has rendered managing the day to day functions of the administration and execution of developmental schemes and projects almost impossible,' the chief minister explained.

The chief minister, however, said the Government of India, happy with the state's performance in managements of its finances, had released the withheld gap grant of three years to the tune of Rs 148.08 crore last year.

Informing the members of the House about the various measures that the government had taken up to close the revenue deficit, the chief minister said existing resources like power tariffs, water charges, bus fares had been upped and the uniform floor rate of taxes adapted by the state.

Apart from this, a voluntary retirement scheme for drivers/handymen/dispatch riders had been implemented from which 140 persons had elected for the VRS, the chief minister said.

'At the same time, a scheme for Privatization of Government Vehicles has been approved by the government of and will be implemented shortly,' he said, adding that under this scheme, a surplus of 500 government vehicles will be available for disposable which will 'earn substantial revenue for the government and at the same time, drastically compress expenditure on maintenance of vehicles'.

Touching on his pet project, the chief minister said one of the most important programmes and policies is the economic utilization of the state's bamboo resources.

Saying that because bamboos flower at a 50-year cycle, Zoramthanga explained that the next event was expected in 2007 which could cause untold damage.

'In anticipation of the occurrence of this menace, the state government intends to harvest all available bamboo within the state for its meaningful utilization,' he said.

He added that this was expected to generate employment and improve the economy of the rural population.

A Vote on Account for the first four months of 2004-05 was also presented by the chief minister in which he asked for Rs 51854.47 lakh for use during April to July 2004.

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