Gujarat Finance Minister Saurabh Patel on Tuesday presented the annual budget for 2016-17 having overall size of Rs 1,51,852 crore with overall surplus estimated at Rs 245 crore and revenue surplus of Rs 3,236 crore, focusing mainly on job creation and social sectors.

According to Patel, fiscal deficit works out to only 2.25 per cent of GSDP and is well within the permissible FRBM limit of 3 per cent. State's public debt stood at Rs 1.82 lakh crore, which is likely to touch Rs 2 lakh crore in 20116-17. The Public Debt to GSDP Ratio in 2016-17 is estimated to be lower at 18.55 per cent as against 18.79 per cent in 2015-16.

"The State's financial position is very stable. We continue to maintain our borrowing discipline and use it only when needed for development-related requirements," Patel told mediapersons after the presentation of the Budget in the State Assembly.

In his Budget presentation in the State Assembly on Tuesday, Patel attempted to tackle the unemployment issue by announcing large-scale government recruitments of teachers, gram sevak, talati, health workers, police, forest guards among others. Patel announced filling up of approximately 66,000 posts in one year, terming it "first instance of such large-scale government recruitment since formation of the state."

Also, a pilot project has been mooted to create employment opportunity through Khadi. GOvernment indents to provide school uniform made from poly-khadi to 20,000 school students in Chotila taluka in Surendranagar district.

Patel allocated Rs 1,000 crore to Mukhyamantri Yuva Swavalamban Yojna, which was launched last year to address the Patidar reservation issue.

As part of the infra-push, the government has also announced to increase power generation capacities by 3,343 MW to 27,949 MW from the current 24,606 MW by the year 2019. The overall outlay for the energy sector is Rs 7,794 crore, which also includes addition of 2.5 lakh new gas connections by next year and installation of 174 km of gas pipelines in the State by Gujarat State Petronet Ltd at the cost of Rs 660 crore.

Patel has made a provision of Rs 1,066 crore for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet project, Statue of Unity and to set up Tribal research and Training institute in the neighbouring area.

For the Dholera SIR project, Patel allocated Rs 1,806 crore for roads, drainage and allied infrastructure on 2,250 hectares of land in phase-1. Further, a provision of Rs 722 crore has been made for the Ahmedabad Metro rail project.

While the budget has fully exempted bamboo and bamboo articles, pedal rickshaw and cycle rickshaw, it provided protection to the local traders and dealers by imposing entry tax on goods coming in the state through e-commerce. The state targets tax revenues to the tune of Rs 30 crore from this move. Further, in order to attract investments in the ambitious GIFT City project, the state finance minister announced exemption from payment of Stamp Duty to the share broking transactions of the share brokers who set up their registered offices in GIFT City, Gandhinagar and also operate and trade from the same place.

The finance minister has given a tax relief of about Rs 171 crore on items such as mosquito nets, sanitary pads, ceramic products, while increased tax on luxury cars and SUVs, pan masala and industrial salt.

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