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Budget for the year 2013-14 presented by Virbhadra Singh main highlights
Every department in State Government will scrutinize it¡¦s Acts, Rules and Guidelines and suggest amendments to simplify the procedures and to make them citizen centric.
A State Commissioner (Public Grievances) to be appointed to monitor timely disposal of public grievances.
An Administrative Boundaries Re-organization Commission¡¨ will be set up for re-organization of boundaries of administrative units of various departments.
A State Innovation Fund to be set up with an initial outlay of Rs. 5 crore to encourage departments to try new initiatives.
Direct Benefit Transfer under all state scholarship and welfare schemes.
An outlay of Rs. 175 crore proposed for the state food subsidy scheme.
Annual plan outlay of Rs. 4100 crore proposed for 2013-14.
Each MLA to be given a budget of Rs. 2 lakh as discretionary grant fund.
Integrated Crop Diversification Programme¡¨ to be started to bring additional 3000 hectare area under vegetable cultivation.
Mukhyamantri Adarsh Krishi Gaon Yojna¡ under which 68 selected panchayats will be given a grant of Rs. 10 lakh each for agricultural infrastructure.
Production of mushroom will be treated as an agriculture activity.
Organic Certification Agency to be established to provide the facility of organic certification to the farmers in the state.
Seeds of high yielding variety of maize, paddy and fodder to be provided at 50% subsidy to the farmers for the coming kharif season.
Token tax exempted for tractors for agriculture purpose.
One Panchayat in each district which is completely free of stray animals to be given an award of Rs. 5 lakh.
Financial assistance to the NGOs/Trusts for setting up and running of Gaushalas for provision of cowsheds, fodder etc.
Procurement price of apple, mango, kinnow, malta and galgal to be increased by 50 paisa per KG.
Anti hail nets to horticulturists on 80% subsidy.
Procurement price of milk increased from the existing Rs. 17.80 to Rs. 18.80 per litre w.e.f. 1st April, 2013.
Rs. 1 crore 90 lakh to be provided for renovation of inland fish landing centres near reservoirs.
Six new monkey sterilization centres to be started.
New ICDP project for Shimla, Kangra and Kullu districts.
Housing Grant under Rajiv Awas Yojna and state housing schemes to be increased from Rs. 48500 to Rs. 75000.
Bi-monthly reimbursement of Rs.350 to be given to BDOs, Tehsildars, Naib Tehsildars and officers in charge of police stations, chowkis and fire stations for use of mobile phone.
Water supply at 70 LPCD to additional 2500 habitations, 2000 hand pumps to be installed during the next financial year.
High Powered Committee for speedy clearances of Hydro projects.
Rs. 270 crore to subsidise domestic consumers of electricity.
Rs. 75 crore equity contribution to HPSEBL.
Provision of Rs. 230 crore for payment of energy charges for lift irrigation and lift water supply schemes.
Three new state of the art industrial areas to be developed in district Una, Solan and Kangra.
Clearances for industrial projects to be made time bound and brought under Public Services Guarantee Act.
Concessional CST of 1.5% on the existing industrial units and 1% on new industrial units.
Rs. 10 crore to be provided for construction and upgradation of the Bus Stands at sub-divisions and blocks.
Grant and equity of Rs.160 crore to HRTC in 2013-14.
Facility of filing e-returns, e-declaration, e-tax payment and issue of C&F forms to be extended to registered dealers having annual turnover of Rs. 40 lakh and above.
Registration fee under the H.P. VAT Act, Central Sales Tax Act, Passenger & Good Tax Act and Luxury Tax Act to be abolished for the new dealers.
HP Traders Welfare Board to be revived.
9% VAT on all types of footwear.
VAT on aviation turbine fuel to be reduced from 5% to 1%.
New hotels in the backward panchayats to be exempted from payment of luxury tax for a period of 10 years.
Free travel facility to government school students for going to and coming from schools in HRTC buses w.e.f. 1st April, 2013.
Patients suffering from cancer and spinal injuries and those on dialysis to be provided free travel facility in HRTC buses along with one attendant.
Re-opening of schools denotified and closed by the previous government.
PTA grants to Lecturer School Cadre to be increased from Rs. 7250 to Rs. 10875, for the TGT from Rs. 6950 to Rs. 10425, and for C&V teachers from Rs. 6750 to Rs. 10125.
Smart classrooms to be started in 618 Government Senior Secondary Schools and 837 Govt. High Schools.
Vocational education in 100 new senior secondary schools.
5 thousand meritorious students of 10th and 12th class to be provided Net books/tablets under Rajiv Gandhi Digital Student Yojna.
Student of Himachal Pradesh who gets admission in IITs, IIMs or AIIMS to be given a cash incentive of Rs.75 thousand.
New ITIs will be opened in all the Vidhan Sabha constituencies without a government ITI.
New engineering college under RUSA in District Kangra.
Cash prize given to the outstanding players of the state to be doubled. Award money of Parshuram awardees to be enhanced from existing Rs. 50000 to Rs. 1 lakh.
Monthly incentive to be increased from Rs. 15000 to Rs. 25000 and from Rs. 25000 to Rs. 40000 to encourage PG doctors to opt for interior locations.
Higher Education Allowance for doctors acquiring PG Degree to be raised from Rs. 5000 to Rs.7000 PM and for those acquiring PG diploma from Rs. 2000 to Rs. 3500 PM.
VAT on cigarette, cigar etc. to be increased from 18% to 36% and on bidis from 11% to 22%.
At least 20% women to be recruited at constable and Sub Inspector level.
Assistance given for remarriage of widows and inter caste marriage to be enhanced from Rs. 25000 to Rs. 50,000.
Mahila Kalyan Board¡¦ will be set up in the state.
Allocation of Rs. 1014 crore under the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan and Rs. 369 crore under Tribal Sub-Plan.
Social Security pension to be increased from Rs. 450 to Rs. 500 pm. Pensioners above 80 years of age will be given pension @ Rs. 1000 PM. All pending applications to be cleared.
Assistance under ¡¥Mukhya Mantri Kanya Daan Yojna¡¦, to be raised from Rs. 21000 to Rs. 25000 w.e.f. 1st April, 2013.
Ex-servicemen pension to be raised to Rs.500 per month from 1st April, 2013.
Amount of War Jagir to be increased from Rs. 2000 to Rs. 3000.
Grant of uniform allowance to non-gazetted ranks of police to be doubled.
10 courts of Additional District and Session Judge and 2 courts of Civil Judge (Junior Division) will be set up in the State.
Skill Development Allowance¡¨ of Rs. 1000 per month to be given to 10+2 and above educated unemployed youth. This rate will be Rs. 1500 per month for persons with disabilities. Interest subvention of 4% to be given up to project cost of Rs.1.50 lakh.
State Skill Development Council¡¦ to be established.
2000 posts of teachers of different categories, 500 posts of data entry operators/computer operators, 500 posts of water guards, 500 posts of patwaris, 250 JEs/ surveyors, 200 forest guards, 200 posts of Panchayat sahayaks and 100 posts of nurses and all vacant posts of doctors to be filled up.
Winter allowance for employees in tribal and hard areas increased from Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 per month.
Fixed Medical allowance for employees and pensioners increased from Rs. 250 to Rs. 350 per month.
Contractual employees completing 6 years of service, Daily wage employees completing 7 years of service as on 31st March 2013 to be regularized as per norms.
Part timers including part time water carriers in the education department who complete 9 years of continuous service as on 31st March 2013 will be made daily wagers as per norms.
Financial assistance to the registered workers engaged in building and construction activities to be enhanced.
Shimla-Himachal Pradesh Government employees working in different departments before January 3, 2022, would be given a higher scale at par with other employees on completion of two years tenure of regular service. A higher pay scale was also announced for the Junior Office Assistants (IT) on completion of two years of regular service.
Chief Minister Jairam Thakur made these announcements during the Karamchari Maha Sammelan of the Himachal Pradesh Non-Gazetted Employees Federation at the hotel Peterhof on Sunday.
He appreciated the role played by the employee especially frontline workers in the battle against the pandemic.
He said most of the government employees in the state have been given revised pay scales and on average, every employee has got the benefit of a 12 to 15 percent salary hike. There has also been an increase in the pension of about 1.50 lakh pensioners of the state. The financial benefits of Rs. 7801 crore have been given to state government employees and pensioners from the year 2018 to 2022. The pensioners who retired before 2016 are getting the benefit of a 15 to 20 percent increase in the pension while around 40 thousand pensioners who retired after 2016 would be benefitted soon, he said.
He said the daily wages were Rs. 210 in the year 2017 which has been increased by the present state government to Rs. 350. Similarly, 12 per cent interim relief annually has been provided to government employees and pensioners during the present government’s tenure. He said the Himachal government has provided Dearness Allowance to its employees and pensioners on the lines of Punjab and Central governments from the due date. The Punjab government has given only 5 percent interim relief to the employees while the Himachal government has provided 21 percent interim relief to its employees.
“Out of the total interim relief amount given to the employees and pensioners amounting to about Rs. 6500 crore, Rs. 3500 crore has been paid during the tenure of our government” added the Chief Minister.
He said that the state government has increased the government contribution for NPS employees from 10 percent to 14 percent benefitting more than one lakh employees. The NPS employees are being given the benefits of retirement and death gratuity at par with employees falling under the old pension scheme. The government has also increased the upper limit of death gratuity from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh.
The Chief Minister said the state government has also increased the honorarium of para-workers working in various departments. The salary of outsource workers has been hiked by Rs 1,500 per month.
Non-Gazetted Employees Federation President Ashwani Thakur thanked the Chief Minister for providing various financial and other benefits to different categories of government employees.
New Delhi-The Centre has issued a notification to the States informing that the provisions of the Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005 will not be invoked in the country after March 31. The Union Health Ministry said that the use of face masks and following hand hygiene will continue.
It implies that most of the Covid-related rules and restrictions would end.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla issued the notification which said that the decision was taken following the overall improvement in the situation and the preparedness of the government in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, local authorities and State police can still invoke fines and criminal cases against persons violating COVID-19 norms under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), a senior government official said.
The DM Act was invoked on March 24, 2020, due to the pandemic
“Over the last seven weeks or so there has been a steep decline in the number of cases. The total caseload in the country stands at 23,913 only and the daily positivity rate has declined to 0.28%. It is also worth mentioning that with the combined efforts, a total of 181.56 Cr vaccine doses have been administered,” the notification said.
“I would like to mention that in view of the nature of the disease, we still need to remain watchful of the situation. Wherever any surge in the number of cases is observed, the States/UTs may consider taking prompt and proactive action at a local level, as advised by MoHFW (Health Ministry) from time to time,” the notification said.
The Indian government had issued various guidelines and measures for the first time on March 24, 2020, under the Disaster Management Act to curb the COVID-19 situation in the country, which have been modified several times thereafter.
India currently has 23,087 active COVID-19 cases and recorded 1,778 new cases and 62 deaths in the last 24 hours. The daily positivity rate has also declined to 0.28%.
Shimla-A meeting of the Himachal Pradesh Cabinet was held on March 20, 2022, under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.
The excise policy for the financial year 2022-23 was approved. Approval was also given for the renewal of retail excise vends in the state for the financial year 2022-23 at the renewal fees of 4% of the value of unit/vend.
The State Government said that wants to enhance the government revenue and curb the smuggling of country liquor from the neighbouring states by a reduction in its price.
The brands of Country Liquor will be cheaper as license fees have been reduced. This will help in providing good quality liquor at a cheaper rate to the consumers.
In the new excise policy, the 15% fixed quota of country liquor for manufacturers and bottlers to be supplied to the retail licensees has been abolished. According to the government, this step will give the retail licensees to lift their quota from the suppliers of their choice and further assure the supply of good quality country liquor at competitive prices. The MRP of country liquor will be cheaper by 16% of the existing price.
In this year’s policy, the Gaudhan Vikas Nidhi Fund has been enhanced by Re.1/- from the existing Rs.1.50 to Rs.2.50.
The fixed annual license fee of Bars has been rationalized by abolishing the area-specific slabs of license fee. Now throughout the State, there will be uniform license slabs based upon the room capacity in hotels.
Rates of the annual fixed license fee of Bars in the tribal areas has been reduced considerably.
Further, all the above stakeholders will have to install CCTV cameras at their establishments as it was made mandatory for them.
Wholesale vends and retail vends, the penalty provisions under the H.P. Excise Act, 2011 have been made more stringent.
An end to end online Excise Administration System would be established in Himachal Pradesh, the government said.
HP Government estimates a collection of Rs 2131 crore revenue during the year, which will be Rs. 264 crores higher than the financial year 2021-22 – growth of 14% in state excise revenues.
The Cabinet also gave its nod to amend Himachal Pradesh Disaster Relief Manual-2012 to include deaths due to biting of honey bees, hornet and wasps, accidental drowning and deaths due to accidents of vehicles (including land, water and air) under this Manual.
The Cabinet gave its approval for filling up 11 posts of ‘A’ Class Tehsildar in Revenue Department through direct recruitment on regular basis through Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission.
HP State Toll Policy 2022-23
The HP Cabinet also gave its nod to HP State Toll Policy for the year 2022-23 which envisages auction cum tender for all the toll barriers in the State. During the year 2021-22, toll revenue has registered a growth of 20 percent of the previous year’s revenue.
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