Mumbai: In presenting the budget 2017-18 on Saturday, Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar did not waive off loans of farmers even though there was a persistent demand by the Opposition and Shiv Sena. However, agriculture got its rightful attention in the budget.
At the outset, the finance minister said that this budget does not propose to increase taxes, except Value Added Tax (VAT) on country and foreign liquor, increasing from 23.08 per cent to 25.93 per cent and on weekly lottery from Rs73,000 (Dh4,094) to Rs100,000.
This is because the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system is expected to be implemented from July 1, 2017 and “create a unified market in the country” and also bring in greater revenue to the state. The minister said that tax concessions on essential commodities like rice, wheat, pulses, coconut and jaggery as well as the famous Solapur bed sheets and towels will continue.
With a revenue deficit of Rs45.11 billion, the agricultural-centric budget made a provision of Rs82.33 bill to the Water Resources Department with a substantial allocation of Rs9.79 billion for irrigation projects in the state, including Marathwada and Vidarbha hit by drought.
Substantial allocation has also been made for infrastructure and development in backward areas — Rs70 billion for roads, setting up of a first corporate port at Vadhavan in Palghar district, Rs5.25 billion for solar energy projects, Rs26.50 billion to start industries in backward areas, Rs18.70 to basic facilities in urban areas, Rs72.30 billion for Scheduled Castes welfare and Rs67.54 billion for Scheduled Tribes welfare.
Other areas that have received attention from the finance minister are development of smart cities, Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur metros, upgradation of Cancer Hospital in Aurangabad as a state level Cancer Research Centre, setting up cancer detection machines at 253 health institutes, and setting up a laboratory at Sindhudurg for treating Monkey fever.
While major cities will be covered by CCTVs, the government will also implement ‘Dial 112’ in the police department to cover police, ambulance and fire services.
A Maharashtra School of Drama on the lines of National School of Drama will also be set up.
The minister also said that “a new scheme called ‘Asmita’ will be started to provide sanitary napkins at subsidised rates to young adolescent girls studying in zilla parishad (district) schools.”
Interestingly, the former Congress-led government at the centre had approved such a scheme for providing highly subsidised sanitary napkins to adolescent girls in the rural areas to promote menstrual hygiene in 2010. The scheme envisaged covering 15 million girls in the age group of 10-19 years every month.
