Economic Survey, Assam, 2011-12 1
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CHAPTER – I AN OVERVIEW OF THE STATE Assam is situated in the North-East region of India – bordering seven States viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and West Bengal and two countries viz. Bangladesh and Bhutan. With a geographical area of 78,438 sq. kms. i.e, about 2.4 percent of the country’s total geographical area, Assam provides shelter to 2.57 percent population of the Country. Most of the State’s population lives in the lush and verdant valleys of its two major river systems in the twenty four districts of the Brahmaputra valley and the three districts of the Barak valley. The less densely populated two hill districts - Karbi-Anglong and Dima Hasao, separated the two valleys. For administrative and revenue purposes, the State has 27 districts including Kamrup (Metro) district and four districts under the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) areas viz. Kokrajhar, Baska, Chirang and Udalguri. Population According to the Census of India, 2011 the population of Assam stands at 3,11,69,272, of which 1,59,54,927 are males and 1,52,14,345 females. The decadal growth of the State’s population works out to 16.93 percent during the decade 2001-2011 as against 17.64 percent for the country as a whole. The density of population of the State has gone up to 397 as against India’s density 382 as per 2011 Census. The corresponding State’s figure as per 2001 Census was 340. State Domestic Product The economy of the State in terms of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at factor cost is expected to grow at the rate of 8.42 percent in real terms (at 2004-05 prices) as per Advance Estimates for 2011-12 as against the growth rate of 7.34 percent estimated in the previous year. The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at constant (2004-05) prices for the year 2011-12 (Advance Estimates) is estimated at ₹80,465.15 crores as against ₹74,214.94 crores for 2010-11 (Quick Estimates) reflecting a growth of 7.34 percent. The estimated growth of 8.42 percent in GSDP of the State for 2011-12 comprises of a growth of 6.43 percent in Agriculture and Allied sector, 7.19 percent in Industry sector and 9.74 percent in Services sector. As per Advance Estimates for 2011-12, the growth of the ‘Industry’ sector, comprising of ‘Mining & Quarrying’, ‘Manufacturing’ (Registered and Unregistered), ‘Electricity, Gas & Water Supply’ and ‘Construction’, is expected to be encouragingly high as compared to 4.78 percent in the previous year 2010-11. This flourishing growth is due to the high growth of the ‘Industry sector’ contributed by the sub sectors especially ‘Construction (11.86 percent)’, ‘Mining & Quarrying’ (5.1 percent) and ‘Manufacturing’ (4.82 percent). The Services sector comprising of Trade, Hotels & Restaurants, Transport by other means & Storage, Real Estate & Business Services and Communications, Banking & Insurance, Social & Personal services is likely to grow by 9.74 percent during 2011-12 as compared to 8.76 percent growth in 2010-11 due to good performance of the all the key sub sectors like ‘Transport, Communication, Trade, Hotels and Restaurants’ and specifically ‘Banking & Insurance’, ‘Real estate and Business services’(14.99 percent). In respect of the Agriculture and Allied sector, while forestry sector is likely to experience moderately higher growth of 5.35 percent than the previous year’s growth of 4.48 percent, the growth anticipated in the fishing sector is 5.23 percent in 2011-12 from the downbeat growth (-4.05) experienced in 2010-11. However, the Agriculture alone has registered a growth rate of 6.64 percent and all together Agriculture and Allied sector is expected to attain a growth rate of 6.43 percent in 2011-12 against 6.49 percent in the previous year. The Net State Domestic Product (NSDP), also known as State Income, at 2004-05 prices is also expected to grow by 8.57 percent as per Advance Estimates for the year 2011-12 compared to 7.33 percent during 2010-11. Economic Survey, Assam, 2011-12 1 It is expected that as per Advance Estimates for 2011-12, the per capita income will attain the level of ₹22956.00 at constant prices (2004-05) and ₹33633.00 at current prices as against ₹21406.00 and ₹30569.00 at constant (2004-05) prices and current prices respectively in the previous year 2010-11. In terms of growth rate, per capita income is increased by 7.24 percent at constant (2004-05) prices and 10.0 percent at current prices in 2011-12 over the previous year. State Finance In the budget 2011-12, the receipt under the consolidated fund of the State is expected to be ₹36892.68 crore. Out of this, ₹32730.85 crore is on Revenue Account and the remaining ₹4161.83 crore is under Capital Account. After taking into account the estimated receipt of ₹97222.89 crore under Public Accounts and ₹50.00 crore under Contingency Fund, the aggregate receipts amount comes to ₹134165.57 crore. The total expenditure from the consolidated fund of the State in 2011-12 is estimated at ₹37173.02 crore, of which ₹31616.63 crore is on Revenue Account and ₹5556.39 crore is on Capital Account. Taking into account of the expenditure of ₹93980.00 crore under Public Account and ₹50.00 crore under Contingency Fund, the aggregate expenditure for the year is estimated at ₹131203.02 crore. Thus, during the year (2011-12), it is expected to have a surplus of ₹2962.55 crore which together with the opening deficit of ₹4505.26 crore for the year 2011- 12 will lead to an estimated closing deficit of ₹1542.71 crore. The State’s own Tax Revenue is expected to increased to ₹6565.92 crore in 2011-12 (B.E.) against ₹5929.84 crore in 2010-11 there by expected to achive a growth of 10.73% in collection of own Tax Revenue in the State. On the otherhand, the Non Tax Revenue of the State is estimated an increase of 30 percent in 2011-12 (B.E.) over previous year. While the share of the State’s own tax revenue is estimated at 41 percent to total tax revenue, the share of Central taxes is estimated at 59 percent, in Budget Estimates for 2011-12. The total outstanding debt on the State during 2010-11 was ₹25495.28 crore (24.46 percent of the GSDP). The per capita loan outstanding as on March 2011 was calculated at ₹8677. Banking As per the “Quarterly Statistics of deposits and credit of Scheduled Commercial Banks of Reserve Bank of India, March, 2011”, the number of reporting Bank Offices of all Scheduled Commercial Banks in Assam stood at 1504 against 1434 Bank Offices as reported in 2010, March.. The average population covered per Bank branch office (based on the projected mid-year population) in the State was around 20 thousand compared to all India average of 14 thousand as on March, 2011. The aggregate bank deposit and gross credit was ₹59101.00 crore and ₹21053.00 crore respectively with scheduled commercial bank in the State as on March 2011. The credit deposit ratio was 35.6 percent during the year against 37.0 percent in 2010-11. Out of the total 1504 reporting offices as on March 2011, 802 bank offices (53 percent of the total reporting offices) located in the rural areas of Assam and share more than 17 percent of the total bank deposit of the State. Agriculture The economy of Assam continues to be predominantly agrarian. The Agriculture sector in the State providing employment to more than 50 percent of the rural people The net cultivated area of the State is 28.11 lakh hectare( 2009-10) which is about 88 percent of the total land available for agricultural cultivation in the State. The contribution of Agriculture sector to the State Domestic Product was nearly 25 percent during 2010-11. The area covered under Paddy cultivation was 25.71 lakh hectares and more than 91 percent of the total area under foodgrains in the State during the year 2010-11. During the year 2010-11, the productivity of Winter Rice has increased to 1993 Kg. per hectare from 1894 Kg. per hectare i.e.more than 5 percent increase in productivity per hectare. The yield rate of Autumn Rice has been expected to reach all time high with 1155kg/hectare which is 17.6 percent above the yield rate of 982 kg/hectare in 2009-10. The productivity of Summer Rice has also continued to maintain its increasing trend by more than 18 percent in 2010-11 over the previous year.. As a result of effect of yield rate, the production of Rice, the most important cereal crop grown in the State, has increased to 50.33 lakh tonnes 2 Economic Survey, Assam, 2011-12 in 2010-11 from 44.09 lakh tonnes in 2009-10 registering about 14 percent increase in Rice production in the State as compared to the previous year. In view of growing demand and to attain self sufficiency in food production, the State Agriculture Department has set the target to cover 27.10 lakh hectare of area under Rice so as to increase the production of Rice more than 54 lakh MT during the year 2011-12. As per available estimates, the production of total foodgrains in the State was 51.78 lakh tonnes during 2010 -11 as against 45.57 lakh tonnes during 2009-10 showing an increase of Foodgrain production of 13 percent over the previous year.