₹5,47,450-crore Maharashtra budget offers aid for farmers, eco-friendly development and employment

Shinde-Fadnavis government’s first budget focuses on sustainable agriculture, prosperous farmers, inclusive for women, tribals, backward class, among other schemes 

The Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government on Thursday presented its first budget, a massive ₹5,47,450 crore for the next financial year 2023-24, based on the principle of ‘Panchamrut’, with a focus on farmers, women, tribals, development of the infrastructure with substantial capital investment, employment, and eco-friendly development.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the State Finance minister, started reading out the budgetary allocations in the Lower House of the legislature from an iPad, while his Cabinet colleague and Shinde faction Shiv Sena leader Deepak Kesarkar read out the budget proposals in the Legislative Council.

Of the total budget, revenue receipts to the tune of ₹4,49,522 crore in the next fiscal, the revenue expenditure is projected at ₹ 4,65,522 crore, while the revenue deficit of the budget was ₹ 16,112 crore, and the fiscal deficit was ₹95,500.80 crore with a total outlay of ₹ 1,72,000 crore.

During the budget presentation, Mr. Fadnavis said that the Amnesty Scheme, 2023, for the Goods and Services Tax Department will be called ‘Maharashtra Settlement of Arrears of Tax, Interest, Penalty or Late Fee Act, 2023’. “Under this scheme, there will be a complete waiver of the arrears in cases where arrears are ₹ 2 lakh or less per year, as a result, small dealers will be benefited in around one lakh cases,” he said.

He said that said the outlay for farmers has been increased by ₹ 6,900 crore and the coverage of the Mahatma Phule Jan Arogya scheme, a health insurance scheme of the government, has been raised from ₹1.5 lakh to ₹5 lakh.

The budget also proposes ₹ 6,000 investment support to farmers and ₹1 crop insurance scheme and also offers relief in professional tax to working women salaried up to ₹ 25,000, 50 % concession on ticket fares to women travelling by State-run buses and ‘Lek Ladki’, a new scheme for the girl child.

“For increasing the income of Annadata Baliraja (farmer), I announce the ‘Namo Shetkari Mahasanman Nidhi’ scheme under which the State government will provide an additional ₹ 6,000 per farmer, apart from ₹6,000 investment support per farmer every year from the Central government,” Mr. Fadnavis said. As many as 1.15 crore farmer families will benefit from it and the government will bear a burden of Rs 6,900 crore, he said.