HIGHEST SHORTFALL IN TAX COLLECTION IN THE AAP GOVERNMENT BUDGET—AAP BUDGET IS A BUNDLE OF LIE AND DECEIT—AJAY MAKEN.

NEW DELHI, March 29—Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Shri Ajay Maken questioned the Aam Aadmi Party Government’s claim of presenting a “zero tax budget” in the Delhi Assembly yesterday, for if the claim was true, then why VAT on petrol and diesel was hiked twice in the last one year. Dissecting the Delhi budget threadbare, Shri Maken said the AAP Government had failed in the revenue collection, as there was a 7.63 per cent shortfall in revenue collection. He said compared to previous years when Congress was in power in Delhi, this is a budget of highest shortfall in tax collection (Comparative table is annexed). He said there is also shortfall in spending Plan funds. He said there was a big gap in Plan and non-Plan spending and because of that, development works have come to a standstill. “They (the AAP Government) are misguiding the public through misrepresentation of facts”, Shri Maken added. Shri Maken termed the AAP Government budget as a bundle of  “lie and deceit” as the Delhi Finance Minister has not put the real facts before the people of Delhi.

Addressing a press conference today, Shri Ajay Maken said compared to the target set last year, there was a shortfall of Rs 3000 crore in  VAT collection, which shows a shortfall of 12.5 per cent  and there was a also fall in growth. He said in the present budget, an increase of 10.53 per cent in sales tax has shown, which was being projected as a  very high figure, though if it was compared to the Congress regime’s financial year in 2010-2011, there was an increase of 26 per cent and 17.86 per cent in 2012-2013, and those figures were far higher. He said on the other hand, the present budget has pegged VAT collection at 13.63 per cent, whereas when Congress was in power it was 18.28 per cent in 2010-2011, 29.17 per cent in 2011-12 and 24.99 per cent in 2012.2013. Shri Maken said  under the AAP government, the VAT collection has witnessed a historic slump.

Shri Ajay Maken said the AAP Government had also totally failed in the spending of Plan funds, as out of Rs 19000 crores, only Rs 11900 crores were spent upto March 21, 2016, where as Delhi  Finance Minister  Manish Sisodia, in his budget speech, had claimed that the Government had spent Rs 16400 crores. He said this meant that the AAP Government spent Rs  4500 crores in ten days, though the Finance Minister had said in his budget speech that the  Government was very careful in spending  public money. Shri Maken asked Sisodia where was the AAP Government spent Rs 4500 crores in 10 days, and whether any corruption was involved in such a huge spending at a short time? Shri Maken said during the AAP Government, the shortfall of the total Plan budget has hit a historic low of Rs 2600 crores.

Shri Maken said while presenting the last budget, the AAP Government, patting on its back, had claimed that the allocation for the education sector had been doubled, and the Government had also squandered lakhs of rupees on advertisement to publicise this. Shri Maken said in the Education Sector, only 17.96 per cent hike has been effected

and the AAP Government, which had spent lakhs of rupees on publicity for doubling the allocation for the educational sector last year, should return the money to the Government exchequer because that money was the sweat and toil of the people of Delhi.

Shri Maken said the Delhi Government has also tried to throttle the MCDs. Though Rs 1712.5 crores have been allocated for the MCDs in the budget, during the Congress regime in Delhi, Rs 1485 crore fund was provided to the MCDs in 2011-12 and Rs 1881.35 crore in 2013-14. In the present circumstances, the allocation to the MCDs should have been much more, but the AAP Government has deliberately reduced the funds for the MCDs.

Shri Ajay Maken said in the present budget, the allocation for publicity has been reduced to Rs 200 crore from the Rs 526 crore in the previous budget. He said it was still ten times more than the Rs 24 crores allocated by the Congress Government, and wanted to know why such a big allocation for publicity. He said why was the Kejirwal Government, which  was talking about the works they would be doing in future, silent on the unfulfilled promises made in the  last budget.

Shri Ajay Maken said the AAP Budget was beyond reality. Quoting the example of allocating just Rs 300 crores for the development of unauthorized colonies, Shri Maken said 40 per cent of the population of Delhi lives in unauthorized colonies, and Rs 300 crore  for unauthorized colonies was nothing, but peanuts.  He said the UPA Government had allocated Rs 2700 crore for unauthorized colonies when Congress was in power in Delhi due to which lots of development works were carried out in unauthorized colonies.

Shri Ajay Maken said on the one hand, there was a major shortfall in the spendings by the AAP Government as Rs 3,164 crore was lying unspent in th treasury, and on the other hand the Finance Minister of Delhi was demanding additional funds from the Centre.

The Chief Reporter                                   Pramod Kumar

…………………….New Delhi.                  Office Secretary