Amid populist schemes, Maharashtra govt faces challenge of fiscal management
Pawar on Friday presented the budget for the fiscal 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs 6,12,293 crore. The revenue receipts are proposed at Rs 4,99,463 crore and the revenue expenditure at Rs 5,19,514 crore. The revenue deficit is estimated at Rs 20,051 crore.
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Clarifying on the means of raising revenue to meet the additional expenditures, Deputy CM and finance minister Ajit Pawar said the government has presented the budget by exploring every aspect of increasing revenue. (PTI Photo)Even as the government announced a series of populist schemes ahead of the Assembly elections, the state government’s budget estimates projected a decline in fiscal deficit at 2.59 per cent of GSDP for 2024-25 as against 2.77 per cent in the previous year. In absolute terms, fiscal deficit is projected at Rs 1,10,355.22 crore while the revenue deficit has been projected at Rs 20,050.69 crore (0.47 per cent of GSDP).
With the announcement of sops eyeing assembly polls, which may cost an additional over Rs one lakh crore to state exchequer, the state government has estimated a rise in revenue to meet the enhanced expenditure. The revenue receipts have been projected to increase from Rs 4.86 lakh crore in 2023-24 to Rs 4.99 lakh crore in 2024-25.
Clarifying on the means of raising revenue to meet the additional expenditures, Deputy CM and finance minister Ajit Pawar said, “We have presented the budget by exploring every aspect of increasing revenue. One of the major mode of earning revenue is acquiring land around the big infra projects shaping up in the state and developing that land,” Pawar said. He added that GST, VAT and Professional Tax witness an increase of 12 per cent every year and excise duty too gives additional money every year. “We will be asking more money from the 16th pay commission,” Pawar said. He added that the state can always present supplementary demands to fulfill the need of funds to carry out the schemes announced in the budget.
Pawar on Friday presented the budget for the fiscal 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs 6,12,293 crore. The revenue receipts are proposed at Rs 4,99,463 crore and the revenue expenditure at Rs 5,19,514 crore. The revenue deficit is estimated at Rs 20,051 crore.
In addition, the total debt stock of the state as per the budget estimates for 2024-25 has risen to Rs 7,82,991 crore which is 18.35 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), continuing the increasing trend of the past two years. In 2023-24, the total debt stock as per cent to GSDP was 17.59 per cent and it was 17.26 per cent in 2022-23.
Pawar, however, qualified that it was well within the sanctioned threshold of 25 per cent. “There is nothing to worry about the debt on the state. We can still avail debt from big banks like ADB or World Bank,” he added.
Interestingly, despite sanctioning supplementary demands worth more than Rs one lakh crore in the previous fiscal, the revenue deficit for that period stands at Rs 19,531 crore. Supplementary demands is an expenditure additional than that approved in the budget.
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