Maharashtra Expects Its Highest Revenue Deficit In FY19

Maharashtra tripled its revenue deficit target for 2017-18 in revised estimates to Rs 14,843 crore.

Purva Chitnis @ChitnisPurva

10 Mar 2018, 06:12 PM IST

A worker walks past gantry cranes at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, operated by Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

Maharashtra expects its highest revenue deficit in the next financial year starting April even as India’s largest state economy estimates its tax income to grow after the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.

The state estimates a revenue income of Rs 2.86 lakh crore against an expenditure of Rs 3.01 lakh crore in 2018-19, Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said in his budget speech in the assembly today. That’s a revenue deficit of Rs 15,375 crore.

“I will try to minimise the deficit by reducing avoidable expenditure and effective recovery,” Mungantiwar said.

Maharashtra, reeling under a farm crisis, tripled its revenue deficit target for 2017-18 in revised estimates to Rs 14,843 crore.

That’s because of the farm loan waiver announced last year. And the stress is still far from over. The state gross domestic product is expected to grow at its slowest pace in three years in the year that ends this month, according to the Economic Survey released yesterday. That’s because crop production is expected to decline, leading to an 8.3 percent contraction in agriculture.

The budget didn’t revise the GSDP growth estimate for the ongoing financial year in line with the Economic Survey, maintaining it at 10 percent.

GSDP growth for FY19 is estimated at 12 percent compared to this year’s estimate of 10 percent. Mungantiwar pegged the FY19 target at 12 percent. That’s still lower than the highest growth of 22.6 percent in the last decade registered in 2010-11.

The fiscal deficit is also expected to fall from 1.85 percent of the GSDP to 1.8 percent in the next financial year.

Also Read: Maharashtra’s Growth To Hit Three-Year Low On Farm Output Contraction

Taxes

Tax income is estimated at Rs 2.31 lakh crore for FY19 compared with the 2017-18 revised estimate for Rs 2.02 lakh crore.
Till February, revenue under GST stood at Rs 45,886 crore.
The government expects a revenue of Rs 90,140 crore under state GST for FY19.
The state government expects an income of Rs 15,162 crore from Integrated GST in FY19.

About 5.3 lakh new taxpayers were added after the GST rollout. However, the state paid municipal corporations Rs 11,804 crore in FY18 as compensation after abolition of octroi and local body tax. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation got Rs 5,826 crore.

The non-tax revenue is expected to drop to Rs 54,413 crore in FY19 compared with a revised estimate of Rs 55,422 crore for FY18.

Allocations

Rs 10,000 crore for implementation of Seventh Pay Commission.
The state finance minister allocated Rs 1,500 crore to the flagship Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan and Rs 3,115 crore to Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai for completing 26 irrigation projects.
He proposed Rs 8,233 crore to the water resources department and Rs 10,828 crore for road development.
Rs 2,215 crore for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

Infrastructure

Provision of Rs 7,235 crore for setting up power infrastructure.
Rs 130 crore for various metro projects in the state.
Rs 300 crore for the Chhatrapati Shivaji statue to be built in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai.

The government said the work on the 701-kilometre Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway will start in April and it’s expected to complete in three years. Around 64 percent of the land has already been acquired for the purpose.

Other Highlights

Rs 9,949 crore for social justice department.
Around Rs 5,000 crore will be budgeted to help 10,000 startups till 2022.
Rs 1,526 crore for treatment of solid waste in cities across the state.