SHABIR AHMAD SHAH
After a gap of seven years, the Chief Minister of J&K himself presented Rs.1.12 lakh Crore budget in the JK assembly on March 7th 2025. The budget was finalized by a dedicated team of officers & officials specifically Director Budget and headed by Chief Secretary before consultations with a number of representatives of trade union organizations, civil society people & others across J&K. Therefore, huge expectations of the people were associated with the current budget in view of manifesto of the ruling party. Here, it has been to be understood that every budget has few main components which needs to be analyzed, explored & utilized on ground. First & foremost is the income of state or UT, secondly the expenses and thirdly the savings or investments and accordingly allocations thereof.
The Chief Minister fixed the tax-GDP ratio at 7.5% for 2025-26 and fiscal deficit at 3% of GDP seems a substantial decrease when compared to 2024-25. The budget further expected the revenue receipts upto Rs.97,982 crores and capital receipts of Rs.14,328 cores.
Agriculture & Services Sectors:
We know that the J&K Economy is primarily based on the services and agriculture & allied oriented. Hence, the thrust areas of every government remain services & agri fields in their budgetary exercise. An allocation of Rs.815 crores in agriculture & allied sectors aims to double the value addition & boost the growth by 11% in order to crease 2.88 lakh jobs with an establishment of 19000 enterprise units. To cover 5500 hectare under HAPD (Holistic Agriculture Development Program) Rs.415 cores has been provisioned in this behalf. Improving efficiency in land utilization by promoting high density plantations in Apple, Walnut, Almond, Cherry, Mango, Litchi, Olive and other related fruits and establishment of Tulip Center of Excellence in SKUAST-Kashmir to be created is a welcome step. Creation of new mandies & linking of mandies with e-NAM portal with an expenditure of Rs.20 crores and 20 new weather stations with latest software with an amount of Rs.1.2 cores will further strength the agriculture sector. The establishment of milk, vegetable, meat, poultry, and basmati clusters with an investment of Rs.30 croes and Rs.15 crores allocation for Environment protection fund for youth is another good step in this direction. Support for 350 start ups and 2700 youth clubs and seed capital fund upto 5 lakh per start up and capital upto 50 lakh per start up is another step for youth associated with agriculture & allied sectors. In order the strengthen the Kissan morale one more step is establishment of 2000 agri based centers (Kissan khidmat ghar). Similarly many steps have been taken in case of Horticulture, Animal & sheep husbandry and fishers.
There are reasons why young people are moving away from Traditional Farming and solutions to encourage them.
The proposed budget allocation of funds & achievements seems a bit difficult because of the fact that getting a job in the agriculture based sector is a challenging task due to various factors like low wages & income, lack of modern skills, seasonal employment, technological disruptions and market fluctuations including land & adequate capital constrains. The success story of entrepreneurship looking good but at the same time failure is common by many reasons like weak marketing strategy & saturated market etc. The skill development to learn about agritech, supply chain management & sustainable farming are the fields to overcome the challenges. One more important step to overcome the challenges in agri sector is thrust on rural economics, agripreneurship, organic farming, agriculture exports and cold storage management. To develop connections with agri business companies, cooperatives and research institutions for better opportunities and achieve the desired goals should have been top priority of the present government. Young slot often associate with farming as a hard labour and meager income generation to meet out their living standards. Further, steps needs to be taken to stop migration of rural to urban should be the priority in order to save the agriculture fields and allied sectors as the aging farmer populations with fewer young successors create a sustainability problem. Modernization in farming is need of hour like utilization of Artificial Intelligence-AI, drones and smart irrigation with a cushion for natural climate changes.
The above graph analysis showing issues related to the startups within a given period 1, 5 & 10 Years.
Services Sector
The service sectors in J&K mainly are Tourism & Hospitality, Health care, Education & skill development, Banking & Financial services, Handicrafts & Handloom, Transport, Retail & e-commerce, Infrastructure and Media & entertainment. Recognizing tourism as a pivotal component of economy, the government has allocated Rs.390.20 crores for tourism development as the record tourist’s visits. It aims to enhance the infrastructure, promote offbeat destinations and develop new unexplored spots. In healthcare service sector, the budget allocates Rs.1750.50 cores under capital expenditure marking an increase of Rs.643.71 crores when compared to previous year. This investment focuses on improving healthcare infrastructure, expanding medical education and enhancing diagnostic facilities to ensure quality healthcare system across J&K. Similarly, the education sector receives a capital expenditure allocation of Rs.1388.97 crores reflecting an increase of Rs.242.75 crores when compared to previous year. This funding aims to enhance educational infrastructure, introduce new courses in Industrial Training Institutes and support placement drives for gradates. The budget emphasizes industrial growth & development with a capital expenditure allocation of Rs.602.85 crores an increase of Rs.291.44 crore over previous year allocation. The key initiatives include the development of 46 new industrial estates. Additionally, Rs.75 crore has been earmarked for a strategic investment plan for Micro, Small & Medicum (MSMEs) enterprises.
Concern
The reduction in import duties on items like bicycles and furniture may lead to higher competition from cheaper imports products, potentially harming local existing profitable industries. This move could adversely affect the sectors such as bicycle & footwear which may face major threats from Chinese import products. While the J&K budget demonstrates a strong commitment to enhance the services sector but the external factors may pose challenges.
Culture & Sports
It has been delighted to write down that the current budget has earmarked an amount of Rs.120 cores for heritage preservations and Rs.10 crores for cultural events is good news for our intellectual class of artists, poets and writers. By this step it is expected that the artists, poets and other performers may be adequately remunerated and awarded so that our culture & language will be preserved which is the basic need for our survival, discipline & conduct. The revival of heritage sites and preservations of historic monuments, forts, temples and sufi shrines across J&K is a positive development in this budget. Establishment of state of the art Tehzeeb Mehal in Srinagar & restoration of Mubarak Mandi Heritage complex in Jammu are good additions. Similarly, establishment of National centers of excellence for water sports at Dal Lake & Basohli Jammu is a welcome step. Setting up of Gymnastic Academy at Gindun Rajbagh & Khel Gaon Jammu was a long demand fulfilled in the ebudget for the people living in two cities. It is also said in the budget that four state of the art cricket academies will be established with a budgetary allocation of 8 crores to boost the cricket fervor among the youth. Besides hosting national and international events including 9th Aerobic Asican Championship in 2025 there is a separate allocation of Rs.4.5 crores for Rafting World cup in Kashmir. However, it is strongly unclear that how much amount has been earmarked for upgradation of grounds across J&K in National or International standard. There is an urgent need of providing turf surface in case of cricket grounds besides basic facilities and national level sports grounds in case of other sports categories. It has to be pointed out here that there are number of stadiums across J&K which has not basic faculties like wash rooms or pure drinking water supply.
Few topics, analysis & details about J&K Budget 2025 have been discussed hereinabove, however, it needs a through introspection so that common people feel a real relief by the sincere efforts of their elected government else time is the best judge.
Shabir Ahmad Shah is Economic Expert, Author and Promoter of Culture & Sports.
