Mumbai: The cash-strapped state government has told its departments not to send requests for funds through supplementary demands unless it is very urgent. Supplementary demands are tabled in every session of the state legislature and the monsoon session is set to begin from July 25. Its financial position has been adversely impacted by the announcement of the Rs 34,000 crore farmers’ package, the seventh pay commission and the implementation of the GST.
Apart from the planned budget, the government tables supplementary demands in assembly session in order to make provisions for expenditures for which the outlay was not made in the annual budget. But this time around, it has decided to include only court matters and other unavoidable expenditures in the supplementary demands to be presented in the monsoon session.
“The state exchequer is bearing the burden of the farmers’ package, the seventh pay commission and the implementation of GST,” an official from the finance department said. Sources in the department said that officials are trying to ensure that supplementary demands do not exceed Rs 1000 crore this time.
When the state declared Rs 34,000 crore for the farmers’ loan waiver, it had no inkling about the burden that it would have to bear for implementing the GST. Though the centre has assured it of compensation for GST, officials said that the fund crunch is inevitable.
“The government has also decided to cut expenditure by 30 per cent so that important works are not affected. The infrastructure work will not be hamper but welfare schemes might be impacted due to the cut,” the official said.
The last supplementary demands approved by the Assembly were Rs 11,104 crore in March 2017, during the budget session of the legislature. In December 2016, Rs 9,489 crore demands were approved, Rs 13,000 crore in July 2016, Rs 4,581 crore in March 2016 and Rs 16,000 crore in December 2016.
