Helped by a considerable increase in revenue, state finance minister Ajit Pawar announced a surplus budget of Rs 58 crore and estimated that the fiscal deficit will reduce to Rs 22,805 crore in 2011-12 from Rs 24,294 crore in 2010-11. Pawar, who was presenting his maiden budget, said the feat would be achieved because of a 31% increase in stamp duty collection and a 26% increase in sales tax revenue. Total revenue in 2009-10 was Rs 86,910 crore. It is expected to increase by 23.3% to Rs 1.07 lakh crore in 2010-11 and to Rs 1.21 lakh crore at the end of the next financial year. For 2011-12, the planned expenditure is estimated at 30% of the total budget while the non-planned expenditure that includes establishment costs is estimated at 70%. The state plans to increase its internal loan borrowings from Rs 5,292 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 8,827 crore in 2011-12. It has set out an ambitious planned outlay of Rs 45,796 crore to complete unfinished projects like hydroelectric dams, hospitals, medical colleges, and water pipelines. The non-planned outlay, meanwhile, is Rs 1,08,329 crore, which brings the total to Rs 1,54,125 crore. More than Rs 12,000 crore have been budgeted for farmers in the form of loan waiver, irrigation projects, crop insurance, electricity subsidy, watershed development programs, wells, state employment guarantee scheme, etc. Nearly 1,000 crore have been set aside for creating drinking water supply and sewage disposal infrastructure for 8,300 villages and towns of Kolhapur, Jalna and Amravati. Besides this, the state has decided to provide nearly Rs 5,347 crore for urban projects, including Rs 1,532 crore as Viability Gap Funding for the metro rail between Ghatkopar and Andheri-Versova. Also, infrastructure schemes that are currently underway in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region such as the Middle Vaitarna project and the like will get another Rs 1,400 crore. Continuing with the administration’s past road development programme, Pawar has provided Rs 2,749 crore for roads across the state. He has also earmarked Rs 4,233 crore for scheduled castes and Rs 3,693 crore for scheduled tribals. For children’s education, the state will spend Rs 1,280 crore; another Rs 211 crore will be used for mid-day meals. Pawar, who handles the energy portfolio, has been generous with handouts for the sector. He has budgeted Rs 2,500 crore as subsidy to farmers in electricity bills; Rs 500 crore as subsidy for power looms; Rs 380 crore for hydroelectric projects; and Rs 2,300 crore to create infrastructure to reduce load-shedding. Pawar has also proposed an additional duty/tax on production and sale of electricity. This fund will be used to develop infrastructure facilities for cities that have power generation plants. The first beneficiary will be Chandrapur in Vidarbha, which generates 2,500 MW electricity. The state will spend Rs 250 crore over three years on its infrastructure development.
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