“Usually senior bureaucrats of the Finance and Planning Departments would draw the plans and prepare the budget for the Government in Jammu & Kashmir when it was a full fledged state before August 2019.”
Budgeting in J&K like legislative and administrative practices and procedures has undergone some major changes as some new practices and procedures of budgeting have been adopted during last five years of direct central rule in Jammu & Kashmir. For the last six years the Union Finance Minister was presenting the budget in the parliament but with the takeover by an elected Government under the leadership of incumbent Chief Minister Omar Abdullah this year the budget will be presented in the Jammu & Kashmir assembly by the Chief Minister who interestingly himself holds the Finance portfolio. Holding discussions with the elected representatives including both the MLAs and the members of District Development Councils (DDC) is a step forward towards inclusivity in budgetary practices and procedures but it would be interesting to mention here that Chief Minister as head of the Government of erstwhile J&K State before 2019 would usually hold discussions with MLAs at District Development Board meetings. Worth mention is this fact also that new role for MLAs is not defined even in case of District Capex Budgets this time. For all practical purposes both MLAs and the members of District Development Councils (DDCs) would have at the best put up charter of demands for development of their concerned constituencies before the Chief Minister as they don’t have the economic and planning expertise required for drawing plans and preparing budget. It may be mentioned here that usually senior bureaucrats of the Finance and Planning Departments would draw the plans and prepare the budget for the Government in Jammu & Kashmir when it was a full fledged state before August 2019. It was an establish convention in Jammu & Kashmir that bureaucrats also used to hold marathon discussions on both the proposed plans and as wells budget formulation with the economists of repute particularly professors of economics of Kashmir and Jammu universities besides the heads of top trading bodies of both Kashmir Valley and Jammu division.
“Before 2019 J&K used to have an economic advisor which it could have even now for holding all budgetary discussions with the economists of repute and leaders of business community in both Srinagar and Jammu. The Budget preparation is not a new experience for the Chief Minister in view of his previous experiences as Chief Minister of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir State and people hope the beginning of new journey for long term fiscal sustainability under the leadership of Omar Abdullah as Chief Minister of a Union Territory hereafter.”
Ahead of the forthcoming budget session of the assembly the first in last six years Chief Minister has not so for initiated consultations and discussions either with the top economists or the heads of the top trading bodies in Srinagar and Jammu but still there is almost a month left for the commencement to hold such discussions before the commencement of the assembly’s budget session. Before 2019 J&K used to have an economic advisor which it could have even now for holding all budgetary discussions with the economists of repute and leaders of business community in both Srinagar and Jammu. The Budget preparation is not a new experience for the Chief Minister in view of his previous experiences as Chief Minister of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir State and people hope the beginning of new journey for long term fiscal sustainability under the leadership of Omar Abdullah as Chief Minister of a Union Territory hereafter.
