A slew of essential services, along with beer and petrol, saw a hike in the taxes in Chief Minister laxmikant Parsekar’s first Budget, which was presented before the State Assembly late on Wednesday. Speaking to the reporters after presenting his maiden Budget Parsekar also said his surplus Budget is focused on ramping up infrastructure and job creation.
“It is an unprecedented revenue surplus of Rs408.18 crore, which is a historic achievement for the State finances,” Parsekar said, adding that the total size of the budget for the forthcoming financial year had increased by 26.48 per cent to Rs13,331.44 crore, as compared to financial year 2014-2015.
“Petrol in Goa is still cheap as compared to other States. Despite the hike in VAT, I want to assure the people that we will not allow the cost of petrol to above Rs60,” Parsekar added. The Budget proposes a hike in VAT on petrol from 10 per cent to 15 per cent which would peg the price of the fuel to about Rs58 per litre. The Opposition lashed out at the Budget calling it anti-poor.
The Budget also proposes a steep hike in licence fees for liquor stores as well as increased excise fees to the tune of Rs20 per bulk litre on cheap Indian Made Foreign liquor to Rs3,025 per bulk litre on premium liquor. The Beer will also cost more with excise fee on a bulk litre of beer hiked from Rs17 to Rs30.