Srinagar: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to present Vote-on-Account (VoA) for Jammu and Kashmir for six months in last session of 17th Lok Sabha on February 5.
The last session of 17th Lok Sabha will conclude on February 9 while Model Code of Conduct is likely to be imposed in first week of March with announcement of the Parliamentary polls scheduled to be held in April-May.
According to officials, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has been sounded about presentation of Vote-on-Account only in short budget session in early February for a period of six months when full budget has to be presented. Full budget, as per the officials, will be presented in June-July in first session of the Parliament of next Government along with national budget.
J&K is anticipating a substantial increase in its budget for the Financial Year 2024-25. For the Financial Year (current) 2023-24, its budget was Rs 1.18 lakh Cr.
However, there will be no financial problem in Jammu and Kashmir as Vote-on-Account will address financial concerns of the Union Territory, the officials said.
For the Union Territory of Ladakh, approval for the grants will be taken from the Parliament.
On its part, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has completed budget meetings with all departments to ascertain their requirements for presentation to the Union Finance Ministry.
Current year’s budget of Jammu and Kashmir i.e. 2023-24 is worth Rs 1, 18,500 crore while in last fiscal i.e. 2022-23, it was Rs 1, 12,950 crore.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had presented J&K’s budget for 2020-21 on March 17, 2020, 2021-22 on March 17, 2021, 2022-23 on March 14, 2022 and 2023-24 on March 13, 2023.
The budget for 2019-2020 was adopted by the then State Administrative Council (SAC) here while budget of 2018-19 was last to be presented in the Assembly of erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir by then Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu before the Government collapsed after withdrawal of support to Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition Government by the BJP in June 2018.

KR Desk