Maharashtra government prioritises agriculture in budget

Mumbai: Refraining from making any populist announcement ahead of the general elections, the Maharashtra government tabled its vote on the account budget in the state legislature on Wednesday.

The finance minister, Sudhir Mungantiwar, has presented his fifth budget with an estimated revenue deficit of Rs 19,748 crore. The total amount of debt of the state has increased to Rs 4,14,411 crore. However, this is 14.82 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) as per the revised estimates.

Despite the reduction in the increase of loans, the state still has a debt of over Rs 4.14 lakh crore. Last year the total debt of the state was Rs 4.61 lakh crore.

The government in its budget has mainly focused on the farms and agricultural sectors of the state.

As per the budget estimates presented in March 2018, the total debt of the state was expected to be Rs 4,61,807 crore. Acco-rdingly, in 2018-19, loan of Rs 54,996 crore was to be taken.

Due to the conscious efforts taken this year, the state took a loan of only Rs 43,000 crore, due to which the increase in the amount of loan was restricted to '11,990 crore. Therefore, the amount of total debt of the state has increased to Rs 4,14,411 crore.

The government has tabled a budget of Rs 4,02,875.61 crore for the financial year 2019-20.

As per the budget provisions, revenue receipts of Rs 3,14,489 crore and revenue expenditure of Rs 3,34,273.39 crore have been estimated in the budget.

Out of this, an estimated amount of Rs 1,47,435 crore would be spent in the next four months. It means that Rs 2,55,440.61 will be left out for the budget provision for the next eight months.

The remaining budget would be tabled in the monsoon session. However, a senior bureaucrat told The Asian Age,

“The government can bring a supplementary demand for their populist schemes just ahead of the assembly election.”

Mr Mungantiwar said, that the next budget, which would be tabled in next session, would be focusing on the farmers, poor, women and the youth.

He also said that revenue of Rs 90,000 crore was expected to be received from this Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the year 2017-18. However, due to the cooperation of the farmers, merchants, workers and industrialists in Maharashtra actual revenue of Rs 1,15,000 crore was received.

Mr Mungantiwar said that based on a past experience, whenever recommendations of pay commission are implemented, the state's finances are somewhat stressed in the following year.

On questioning about the populist scheme in the budget, Mr Mungantiwar said that the budget is not meant for the populist schemes but for development of the state.

“Winning an election is a by-product of good works and our government is doing that. The alliance has also been formed with Shiv Sena and our government will table the next budget.

“Looking at the size of state’s economy, it can be seen that this debt is reasonable as per the established fiscal benchmarks. The debt of the state is estimated to be 14.82 per cent of its GSDP as per the revised estimates. According to the prevailing fiscal indicators, the financial position of the state is healthy if the quantum of debt is below 25 per cent of GSDP. Our government has been successful in keeping the quantum of debt below 15 per cent of GSDP for the year 2018-2019,” he said.