22 hours Ago By Priyanka Kakodkar
The Maharashtra state budget hiked the district annual plan by 11% to Rs 20,165 crore and significantly increased the scheduled caste and tribal components. MUMBAI: With both urban and rural local body polls looming, the state budget presented by DCM Ajit Pawar on Monday hiked the district annual plan by 11% from Rs 18,165 crore to an estimated Rs 20,165 crore. In a gesture towards social justice, it has hiked the proposed scheduled caste component of the annual plan by 42% and the tribal component by an estimated 40%.
The budget proposes new taxes mainly related to motor vehicles which are expected to generate revenue of Rs 1,125 crore. It has also hiked stamp duty on certain transactions. Financial strain is apparent in the figures.
The state's debt projection is Rs 9.3 lakh crore, more than 10% higher than it was in 2024-25 when the figure was Rs 8.39 lakh crore.
It is almost thrice as high as it was a decade ago. Its revenue deficit - the gap between the state's income and expenditure - is nearly Rs 20,000 crore more than the estimate last year, which was Rs 26,535 crore. However, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar who controls the finance portfolio and presented the budget, emphasised that the debt and fiscal deficit were within fiscal limits.
"We have been successful in keeping the fiscal deficit within 3% of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) as prescribed by the Maharashtra Fiscal Responsibility and Budgetary Management Act," he said. The state's fiscal deficit is estimated at 2.76% of its GSDP.
Also, the estimated debt is 18.7% of GSDP while the prescribed limit is 25%. However, sources say one of the factors which helped keep these key ratios on fiscal limits down is a rise in the state's GSDP which is set to increase from Rs 45.
3 lakh crore in 2024-25 to Rs 49.4 lakh crore in 2025-26. There are other ways in which the govt has sought to keep a tighter leash on expenses.
The majority of departments have kept their expenditure estimates only around 10% higher than last year. Also, while the budget mentions infrastructure schemes, it actually reduces the outlay on capital expenditure from the actual amount spent last year, by Rs 15,866 crore. The infrastructure projects, particularly related to roads, are mainly ongoing projects for which no fresh outlay has been mentioned.
The Opposition has accused the government of ignoring its poll promises in the budget, particularly the Ladki Bahin scheme. "All the schemes are for the wealthy. The common man has been forgotten.
No allocation has been made for schemes like the Shiv Bhojan thali," alleged NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil. Responding to criticism about the Ladki Bahin Yojana, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said, "The Ladki Bahin stipend can be increased at a later stage. It's not correct to say the allocation has been reduced.
It was an estimate and was then changed to fit how much was actually spent. We can always increase the allocation during the year." The budget states that an expense of Rs 33,232 crore was incurred for the scheme for 2.
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