Mizoram State Assembly’s Budget Session began today. State Finance Minister H Liansailova presented the budget for year 2012-13 in the Assembly. The Budget for the financial year 2012-13 has been kept at 5,176.67 crore rupees, which includes 2,300 crore rupees of state annual plan for the year while Centrally Sponsored Schemes amount to 110.48 crore rupees.In his budget speech, the Finance Minister put the estimated revenue surplus at 627.77 crore rupees while the fiscal deficit has been fixed at 265.61 crore rupees. Giving top priority to the state flagship scheme, New Land Use Policy (NLUP), an amount of 370 crore rupees has been earmarked for the scheme, which was 234 crore rupees during 2011-12. A total of 29,861 beneficiaries will be selected under the scheme during 2012-13.In this year’s budget, the fund for MLA Local Area Development Scheme has been enhanced to 12 crore rupees from last year’s 10 crore rupees. It means that every constituency will now receive 30 lakh rupees. For the first time, 20 lakh rupees have been earmarked for the promotion of visual arts in the state. 329.37 crore rupees have been allocated for the improvement of road network across the state. The general discussion on the budget for 2012-13 will take place on 23rd and 24th July.