Ranchi, March 05: (PTI) The Jharkhand government today kept essential commodities like rice, wheat, potatoes and onions out of the tax net and scaled down VAT on diesel prices from 20 per cent to 18 per cent in its Budget for 2010-11.
The state government also focused on the development of agriculture and food security.
Tabling the Budget with a total outlay of Rs 22,297.59 crore in the Assembly, state Finance Minister Raghuvar Das said, “Jharkhand is the only state in the country where the BPL families will get rice @ Re 1 per kg and salt @ 25 paise per kg.”
“Keeping in mind a vast number of people using rubber footwear, we have also proposed to keep slippers out of tax net…so also on mehendi and solar batteries,” he added.
“We have reduced VAT on diesel from 20 per cent to 18 per cent,” Das said.
–Agencies