Monday marks the beginning of a five-day assembly session that will see the AAP government deliver its third budget since coming to power in February 2015.

Last year's budget didn't propose any new tax and rationalised value added tax (VAT) slabs. This year, too, with the goods and services tax (GST) regime likely to be introduced across the country from July, there are indications that the Delhi government is unlikely to put any fresh tax burden on the common man for now. The government is also likely to stick to its pro-poor pitch as the municipal polls are due in April.

The session will begin with lieutenant governor Anil Baijal's first address to the assembly in which he will place before the House the vision and achievements of the government. The budget is likely to be tabled on Wednesday.

With the AAP government increasingly portraying welfare of common man as critical to the development agenda, the 2017-18 budget may focus on three areas that chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his ministers have highlighted over the past two years — education, transport and health. In fact, the 2016-17 budget was like a repackaged version of the 2015-16 exercise along with the promise of better delivery.

While public transport hasn't seen much improvement, projects in education and health sectors have been repeatedly touted by the AAP government as its major achievements. However, with Kejriwal recently asserting the importance of public transport in fighting pollution in the capital, the government is likely to invest its energies in this sector in a big way.

The budget is likely to have an outlay similar to last year, when the approved kitty was estimated at Rs 46,600 crore. In 2015-16, it was Rs 41,129 crore. This year, too, the outlay is unlikely to see any unusual increase, a source said.

SEE ALL COMMENTSADD COMMENT
There will also be no separate plan and non-plan categories of allocations. Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had announced earlier in the year that keeping with the national consensus on budget reforms, Delhi would only have capital and revenue heads. The central government this year paved the way for budgetary reforms in setting long-term goals by doing away with the plan and non-plan heads.

Both BJP and Congress have constantly attacked the government for its failure to deliver on its poll promises. BJP, which sits in the opposition bench with just three MLAs, is preparing to take on the government on the status of delivery on the road map laid out in the previous budget for issues ranging from mohalla clinics to aam aadmi canteens.