Choosing not to propose any fresh taxes on the people ahead of the State Assembly polls due in October this year, Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Tuesday presented Rs 20,292.94 crore revenue deficit budget which among other things contained several sops for the drought-affected farmers, including 33.5 per cent concession in power tariff.
Amid a noisy walkout by the Opposition from both the Houses of the State Legislature over the alleged “leak” of budget papers, Mungantiwar presented a budget for 2019-20 which showed that the State debt had mounted to Rs 4.14 lakh crore as on March 31, 2019.
“As per the revised estimates, at the end of March 2019, the total State debt is at Rs. 4,14, 411 crore. In view of economic size of the State, the debt is within the permissible limits of financial indicators,” Mungantiwar said.
The Minister said that during 2019-20, the state government expected a revenue of Rs.3,14, 64,012 as against an anticipated revenue expenditure of Rs.3,34,93,306 Thus, the revenue deficit will remain at Rs.20,292.94 crore.
Mungantiwar said that the tax base of Maharashtra had broadened after the implementation of GST with the increase in number of registered taxpayers from 7,75,000 to 15,50,000.
Reiterating his government’s resolve stand solidly behind the drought-affected farmers, Mungantiwar said that the State Government had credited Rs 4,461 crore in the bank accounts of 66,88,422 farmers from 17,985 villages from 151 tehsils in 26 districts in the State.
Among the farmers that Mungantiwar came up with were: concession in payment of land revenues, Restructuring of Co-operative loans, Stay on recovery of agricultural loans, 33.5 per cent concession in current electricity bill of agricultural pump sets, waiver of examination fee for school and college students, relaxation in the criterion of works under Employment Guarantee Scheme Drinking water supply by tanker wherever necessary and no disconnection of agricultural pump sets in the villages where scarcity has been declared.
The minister said that scarcity control rooms had been set up in all Collector Offices in the state for redress of drinking water scarcity.
The State Government had started 1,635 fodder depots with increase in the rates for the cattle feed.
Among other things, Mungantiwar said that 26 on-going irrigation projects had been included in the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Scheme, while the remaining costs of the projects is 22 thousand 398 crores and out of which, Rs. 3 thousand 138 crores will be made available through the union budget.
The Minister said the State Government intended to complete the much-delayed Gosikhurd national project by December 2021.
Earlier, the Opposition members staged walkouts from both the Houses of the State Legislature, alleging that the state’s budget for 2019-20 was “leaked” on Mungantiwar’s official Twitter handle, before he presented it in the Assembly.
Charging that the “leak” of budget papers was “insult” to the legislators, the opposition members demanded an apology from Mungantiwar and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over it.
“We were in power for 15 years, but the budget never got leaked. Now the budget provisions were being put out on the finance minister’s Twitter account along with advertisement even before he read out those to us,” senor NCP leader and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar told media persons outside the House.
“The team handling the minister’s Twitter account had all the details. This means the budget got leaked to them first. This is an insult of the members. Both Mungantiwar and Fadnavis should apologise,” Pawar said.