Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said he would present the state’s first e-Budget at the legislative Assembly. “The government will present the first e-Budget in the Assembly and each legislator will be provided with a tablet (computer) with details of the Budget,” Sarma said.
The legislators will be able to access the tablets during discussions and cut motion on the Budget inside the House, he said. The state Budget would be also available on Google app. Mediapersons covering the Budget presentation will be given a pen drive containing its details, the minister said.
The conventional paper Budget would be available as well.
The finance department had called for suggestions from the public regarding the Budget provisions, and more than one thousand people submitted their suggestions, the best of which have been sorted out for incorporation in this year’s Budget, he added.
"Andhra Pradesh was the first state to introduce e-budget, but it was limited to the legislators - who got the budget documents on tablets - and was not in the public domain. We are going beyond that. For the first time in the country, the proceedings of the budget presentation will go live on Twitter and Facebook," Sarma said.
"We will have a budget that is citizen-centric. We had sought suggestions from the people and our team had visited 40 academic institutes and 17 districts. We have received about 1,000 suggestions and incorporated them in the budget as much as possible," Sarma said.