Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis Friday dubbed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government’s first budget “directionless” and accused it of trying to cover up the actual “fiscal deficit”. Questioning the state government’s decision to increase value-added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel by Re 1 per litre, he said it will have a cascading impact on prices of several services and consumer items and adversely affect the common man. “The deputy chief minister made a public speech instead of addressing the hardcore financial matters. It clearly shows that the government, which cobbled together for power, has not been able to focus on the real public issues in last three months,” Fadnavis said. Tabling the first budget of the MVA government, which completed 100 days in office Friday, finance minister Ajit Pawar put the fiscal deficit at Rs 54618.38 crore. Referring to the taxes and its implication on the people, Fadnavis also accused Pawar of a “hurried job”. The former chief minister said the MVA government’s claim that the Centre had failed to compensate Rs 8,000 crore under GST “is not entirely correct. They are not speaking about an additional Rs 17,000 crore provided by the Centre to the state under the GST”. Referring to the government’s decision to announce Rs 50,000 incentives to farmers through one-time settlement (OTS) scheme, Fadnavis said, “When we implemented this scheme under loan waiver, the Congress and the NCP had minced no works to attack us. Now, they are following our footsteps.” Fadnavis said not a single scheme proposed by the MVA government was original. “They have renamed the Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan as Chief Minister Water Conservation Scheme. The Mukhya Mantri Sadak Yojana that was started by us for 30,000-km rural roads, has now been extended to 40,000 km. Moreover, they are trying to project the Centre’s National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), as a state scheme,” he said. Former BJP finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar also reminded the chief minister about the promises made in its election manifesto. “Where are one lakh laptop for girl students? The budget talks about only one lakh ‘Shiv Bhojan’ thalis (government’s Rs 10 meal scheme) when the number of people below poverty line (BPL) stands at 1.97 crore. Their income is less than Rs 13 per day. What about Shiv thalis for these people?” he asked. Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Praveen Darekar said the government was generous in allocating Rs 1,000 crore for developing a tourism complex of international standard at Worli Dairy in south Mumbai but had allocated only Rs 200 crore for a water supply project in drought-hit Marathwada region.
