Mumbai: Maharashtra’s gross state domestic product (GSDP) has grown by 10 per cent in the current fiscal and the government is committed to ensure that revenue deficit doesn’t cross the prescribed limit, Finance Minister Ajit Pawar told the Legislative Assembly on Friday.
Replying to a debate on the interim budget for FY 2024-25 presented in the Lower House earlier this week, Pawar, who is also Deputy Chief Minister, said the fiscal deficit — gap between government’s income and expenditure — has been restricted at 2.32 per cent of state GDP.
GSDP indicates total economic output generated within a state’s boundaries over a specified period, typically a fiscal year.
He said the GST (Goods and Services Tax) recovery has also increased, filling the state coffers substantially. The GST revenue has increased 19.9 per cent, which is the highest for a state in the country.
Pawar said the state’s current debt is 18.02 per cent of the GSDP and added the prescribed limit should be 25 per cent.
The deputy CM maintained the interim budget, in which total expenditure for the next fiscal year was pegged at Rs 6,00,522 crore with a revenue deficit of Rs 9,734 crore, focuses on agriculture, education, public works, health and medical education, social justice, among other segments.
Apart from this, thrust has been given on infrastructure development to facilitate industrial growth, he stated.
Pawar noted the government was pro-farmer and highlighted measures taken for cultivators, including providing benefit of crop insurance to them by paying only Re 1, contributing Rs 6,000 (per eligible farmer, per year) in the centrally-sponsored Namo Shetkari Sanman scheme as well as providing essential foodgrains at subsidised rates.
He said Mahananda Dairy, a state government entity, will be handed over to any institution which gives the best proposal for managing it, and rejected speculations that the undertaking has been handed over to a Gujarat-based organisation.
Opposition members staged a walkout protesting against Pawar’s reply and stating that common citizens had not got any relief in the interim budget.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Neha Khan | 
