CHANDIGARH, 8 March, 2021 (TON): As the Assembly polls in Punjab are approaching, on Monday the state Finance Minister Manpreet Badal presented the budget for the next fiscal.

Badal presented the fifth and the last Budget of the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government of Rs 168,015 crore for 2021-22.

The total receipts are expected to be Rs 162,599 crore.

"This year Punjab contributed 27 percent of paddy and 32 percent of wheat to the Central pool and the state paid Rs 13,774 crore on account of servicing of the cash credit limit (CCL) gap taken over by the previous SAD-BJP government till March 2021," he said.

Amid the farmers’ issue of the farm laws, he announced to waive Rs 1,186 crore of 1.13 lakh farmers and Rs 526 crore of landless farmers in the next phase of the crop loan waiver scheme launched in 2021-22.

As per the Budget speech, there will be a provision of Rs 200 crore for crop diversification and Rs 7,180 crore to go as a free power subsidy for the farmers.

Rs 170 crore has been allocated for the travel so that the women and student passengers can travel cost-free in public buses.

Old age pensions would be increased from Rs 750 to Rs 1,500 a month, the Shagun scheme from Rs 21,000 to Rs 51,000, and the monthly pension of freedom fighters from Rs 7,400 to Rs 9,400, while, the pension for a month of the Punjabi writers increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 per month.

A total of 48,989 posts in the government to be filled in the first phase against 1 lakh vacancies.

In the education sector, Badal announced a slew of new schemes, including, two new medical colleges and hospitals to be set up in Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur towns, entailing an expenditure of Rs 650 crore.

He said the state GSDP has increased from Rs 4,26,988 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 6,07,594 crore in 2021-22, i.e. an increase of 42.30 percent over 2016-17.

However, the budget was announced before a year of the Assembly polls that seem to curry favored the farmers, women, elderly, and government employees by presenting a populist but deficit budget for the next fiscal year.