The Punjab Cabinet on Tuesday decided to hold the budget session of the state Assembly from 24 June to 30 June.

A decision to this effect was taken in the meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann at Chief Minister’s Office. The finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema will present the budget for the year 2022-23 on Monday 27 June and general discussion on Budget will take place thereafter.

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The new Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, which took charge on 16 March, had passed a vote-on-account of Rs 37,120 Crore on 22 March for the April-June period.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet also gave green signal for providing Minimum Support Price (MSP) on Summer Moong at Rs 7275 per quintal for the year 2022-23 by Markfed, the state nodal agency for the purchase of crop.

It was also decided to provide viability gap funding to the agency at Rs 1875 per quintal amounting to nearly Rs 66.56 Crore. During the current season Summer Moong is being sown on about 95,000 acres of land with an expected yield of five quintal per acre.

In another decision, in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Punjab Cabinet also decided to waive off stamp duty being levied on executing the loan agreement up to R. 50,000 (third tranche loan) for the street vendors in the state under PM SVANidhi Scheme.

The Cabinet also gave go-ahead for amending clause 3(1) of “The Punjab State Legislature Members (Pension and Medical Facilities Regulation) Act, 1977” to give MLAs of Punjab Assembly one pension (irrespective of the number of terms served) at new rate of Rs 60,000 per month plus Dearness Allowance as applicable to the pensioners of the Punjab government.

This will replace the existing provision as per which an MLA is being paid a pension of Rs 15,000 per month plus dearness allowance thereon (as admissible to the Punjab government pensioners) for the first term and an additional pension of Rs 10,000 plus Dearness allowance thereon (as admissible to Punjab government pensioners) for every subsequent term. The Punjab government is expected to save around Rs 19.53 crore annually with this historic initiative, added the spokesperson.