AAP government set to table its Budget today

The Aam Aadmi Party government will table its second Budget on Monday where education along with health and transport are likely to get major allocations. Education and health were the AAP government’s thrust areas in the last Budget too. The Kejriwal government will standardise the value-added tax on garments and shoes in the Budget as there are varying taxes on some items that often causes confusion and affect compliance.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who holds the finance and education portfolios, is likely to allocate 25 per cent of the total Budget allocation to the education sector by focusing on training programmes and physical infrastructure.

In the 2015-16 Budget, the Kejriwal government had allocated Rs 9,836 crore for the education sector, out of which Rs 4,570 crore was given under the plan outlay — an increase of around 106 per cent.

The Kejriwal government is also expected to shell out more on public transport as it has decided to buy 1,000 new air-conditioned buses. The House will sit only for five days till March 31.

The Kejriwal government will provide funds for 3,000 mohalla sabhas where locals will have a say in deciding civic projects in their areas. The AAP government is expected to set aside Rs 50 crore for the Aam Aadmi canteens, modelled on Tamil Nadu’s highly-subsidised Amma canteens, to provide nutritious food to migrant workers in the national capital.

The city government will not introduce any new bill during the Budget Session as it awaiting the Centre’s nod for 14 bills passed by the Delhi Assembly in last one year.

“If the Centre does not give its nod to the city government’s bills at the earliest, there is no benefit of tabling new bills and sending them to it for approval,” Mr Sisodia had said recently.

The Winter Session of the Delhi Assembly, which was the longest in the history of the Delhi legislature, had seen the introduction and passage of 15 bills, including the Janlokpal and Delhi School Education Amendment Bills.