Punjab Budget: Retirement age reduced to 58; Free education till Class 12 | Highlights

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Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal presented state budget 2020 on Friday, announcing the proposed government's expenditure on various schemes for up to Rs 1.54 lakh crore. One of the key announcement made by the Punjab Finance Minister is reducing the retirement age for government employees to 58 and releasing 6% pending DA arrears in a week's time. This is the fourth time Manpreet Singh Badal presented the state budget in the Capt Amarinder Singh-led government. Badal also made the big announcement that education for all students till Class 12 would be free.  

Punjab Budget 2020: Highlights

1. Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal in his budget speech announced  that education till Class 12 would be free. He alloted Rs 13,092 crore, the highest allocation in the budget, to the education sector.

2. The Punjab government has proposed Rs 2,000 crore for crop loan waiver, Rs 520 crore for farm labourers.

3. Rs 100 crore has been allocated for smartphones under Punjab government's youth scheme.

4. Rs 324 crore for employment generation, Rs 148 crore for skill development have been allocated by the Punjab government in Budget 2020.

5. The state has also proposed to set up a new cattle feed plant at Kapurthala.

6. The Punjab government has also proposed to set up a vet college and regional research centre at Sappanwali in Fazilka.

7. Rs 8,275 crore of power subsidy to farmers in 2020-21.

8. Rs 3,830 crore for rural development and Rs 5,026 crore for urban.

9. Rs 12,526 crore for Agriculture 

10. The health sector will get an expenditure of Rs 4,675 crore for fiscal 2020-2021.

11. Punjab’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) would increase from Rs 5.74 lakh crore to Rs 6.44 lakh crore in 2020-21.  

12. Punjab GSDP reduced from 42.75% to 39.83%, will be further reduced to 38.53% by March 2021.

13. Announcing the state budget on Friday, Manpreet Singh Badal said that the funding gap for state's expenditure has been reduced to Zero that stood Rs 2323 crore in 2019 and Rs 10,000 crore in 2017.

14. The Punjab government has proposed to expand its expenditure on salaries and pensions increased by Rs 4,000 crore. 

15. The government announced that it will implement the pay commission report according to which 6 per cent of DA arrears will be released within next week.

16. Manpreet Singh Badal said the state debt is expected to rise to Rs 2.48 lakh crore by March 2021.

17. One of the biggest announcement made by the Punjab Finance Minister is reducing the retirement age of employees to 58 and also withdrawing the practice of giving extension in service.

Punjab Finance Minister also announced to waive Change of Land Use (CLU) charges for two years. In the budget, Badal proposed revenue receipts of Rs 88,004 crore and revenue expenditure of Rs 95,716 crore for fiscal year 2020-21.

Badal said that the state government proposes to set up two agriculture colleges at Gurdaspur and Balachaur.

(With inputs from PTI)

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