AAP budget to focus on growth, no new taxes

With an eye on the municipal polls, the AAP-led Delhi government on Wednesday presented a budget without new taxes, but with emphasis on growth, despite the ‘negative impact’ of demonetisation.

Announcing that there is ‘no new proposal for tax increase like the previous two years’, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also handles the finance portfolio, said the government expects a positive impact on tax revenue collections after the implementation of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) later this year.

 Sisodia said demonetisation had a negative result, which reflected in the economic scarcity in most of the markets. But despite that, Delhi’s Gross State Domestic Product is likely to increase to Rs 6,22,385 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 5,51,963 crore in 2015-16 — a growth of 12.76%, he said.

In an announcement that brought cheer to the aviation sector, Sisodia proposed a reduction of VAT on air turbine fuel (ATF) from 25% to 1% for airlines operating flights under the Regional Connectivity Scheme.