Chandigarh, December 5- Haryana Chief Minister Sh Manohar Lal has requested the legislators to forward their suggestions and ideas for the forthcoming state budget.

The legislators should share the list of works to be done in their respective areas and they should share their suggestions and demands, which can be included in the budget, said Sh. Manohar Lal.

The Chief Minister was addressing the legislators during the discussion programme held on State Finance Management and Budget organized by the Haryana Vidhan Sabha in Panchkula today.

Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Sh. Gian Chand Gupta, Deputy Speaker, Sh. Ranbir Gangwa, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sh. Kanwar Pal and other Ministers and MLAs attended the programme.

Sh. Manohar Lal said that in today's programme, the legislators will get an excellent opportunity to understand the nitty-gritty of the budget.

He said that for the last 8 years he got an opportunity to understand all the activities related to the budget. However, for the last 3 years, every time while presenting the budget as the Finance Minister, he also gets a chance to know many untouched aspects of the budget.

"Such training programmes will also provide an opportunity for the MLAs to understand the detailed information of the budget. This also helps in preparing the state budget well and will become an ideal budget for other states as well," said Sh. Manohar Lal.

He said that before preparing the budget if there are demands from the members, the State Government will try to include them in the budget.

The Chief Minister said that the budget is prepared to keep in mind the income and expenditure. It is not possible to make changes in the budget after it is presented before the Hosue.

He said that it is often seen that when the budget is presented, the MLAs place demands for development works in their respective areas, but at that time those demands cannot be included in the budget. This time there is a 3-month gap before the budget would be presented.

"Therefore in these three months, all the MLAs can send the list of development works to be done in their respective areas to the Finance Department or the concerned Minister or even directly to me, so that these demands can be included. I will try my best to fulfill the demands raised by every MLA," said Sh. Manohar Lal.

Initiative taken to hold pre-budget consultation meetings with stakeholders

Sh. Manohar Lal said that the state government has started pre-budget consultation meetings with various stakeholders to make the budget welfare-oriented.

The Chief Minister said that for this year's budget, the State Government held 8 meetings with public representatives, etc., and discussed with 477 stakeholders. These meetings were held with officials of all departments, representatives of local bodies, Panchayatiati raj institutions, industry and commerce, agriculture, education, health, service sector, and real estate, said Sh. Manohar Lal.

He said that, this time the State Government has also formed 8 committees of MLAs to discuss the budget. A total of 74 MLAs were included in these committees. Various departments were given to these committees for deliberations, added the Chief Minister.

Haryana's economic condition is better than many other states

Sh. Manohar Lal said that the economic condition of Haryana is better than many other states.

"Our financial management is good, due to which we have been able to manage State's budget deficit. In terms of per capita income also, we are number one among the big states," said the Chief Minister.

He said that the borrowing limits of the states are fixed by the Union Finance Ministry.

"States cannot borrow more than 25 percent of the GSDP. Due to the Pandemic, the receipts of the state government decreased and faced economic hardship, but We have taken loans within this limit despite the Pandemic crisis," said the Chief Minister.

He said that due to COVID-19, the Central Government had given the states the facility to take loans up to 5 percent of the GSDP. But Haryana's debt burden has remained within the range of 3 to 3.5 percent of GSDP. While other states took the entire 5 percent loan. The government aims to keep this limit up to 3 percent only, informed Sh. Manohar Lal.

Paperless budget presented under e-vidhan sabha initiative

The Chief Minister said that the State introduced many first-of-its-kind initiatives to smoothly run the proceedings of the Assembly.

To make the Vidhan Sabha paperless, this time every MLA was given a copy of the budget in a tablet to make them IT-oriented. said Sh. Manohar Lal.