Ajit Pawar to present Maharashtra annual budget on June 27

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government will table the annual budget of the state on June 28 in the Monsoon assembly session. The business advisory committee (BAC) in a meeting held on Friday finalized that the monsoon session will be held from June 27 to July 12 in Mumbai. This will be the last session of the Eknath Shinde-led government before the Maharashtra Assembly election, which is expected to be held in October this year.

Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar chaired  the BAC meeting, which was attended by chief minister Eknath Shinde, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Congress legislative party leader Balasaheb Thorat,  Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) leader Jayant Patil and Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar, who joined the meeting via video conferencing.

An official, who attended the meeting, said that the Opposition parties wanted to have a three week monsoon session but the demand was turned down in the meeting by the ruling parties. The Speaker also stated that another BAC meeting will be held during the session if needed.

“However, the BAC has approved the Opposition parties' three proposals which will be tabled on June 29, July 04 and July 11,” the official said.  

The official said that the condolence motion will be tabled on June 27. The annual budget will be tabled at 2.00 PM on June 28 by deputy CM and finance minister Ajit Pawar. On June 29, there will be a discussion on the Governor Ramesh Bais’s speech, which was delivered before the Budget session in February 2024. There will also be a discussion on supplementary demands in the house.    

Pawar on February 27 had presented an interim Budget for the state in the wake of the Lok Sabha elections.

Interestingly, the monsoon session of the state assembly is usually held for two weeks. However, NCP (SP) leader Patil said that the Opposition wanted to extend the session for a week so that they can discuss all issues properly. “We demanded to extend the monsoon session for a week as we cannot conclude discussion in two week’s period. The chief minister assured that the government will again hold a meeting of the BAC and if needed, they will consider extending the session,” he said.