Huge growth is expected in agriculture, financial services and construction according to the Economic Survey of Maharashtra for 2010-11. The overall effect is expected to help the state’s economy grow by 10.5% in the 2010-11 fiscal year. However, the debt burden is expected to continue rising. It is estimated to reach Rs 2.09 lakh crore, a jump of 14% from the debt in 2009-10. The state, reads the economy survey, will retain its leading position in the country with a contribution of 15% to the national income in 2010-11. The revenue deficit is expected to drop to Rs 7,654 crore for 2010-11 as against Rs 12,731 crore in 2009-10. The state had recorded a revenue surplus of Rs 5,577 crore in 2008-09. There was no relief for the consumer, though, with the average Consumer Price Index (CPI) for April 2010 to January 2011 rising 11.2% for rural Maharashtra and 12% for urban areas in relation to the same period the previous year. The expected 10.5% boost to the economy is more than the 8.7% growth the state had in 2009-10. Using 2004-05 prices as the constant, the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is expected to be Rs 7.75 lakh crore in 2010-11 as opposed to Rs 7.01 lakh crore in 2009-10. Agriculture, fisheries and forestry is expected to experience 12.5% growth in 2010-11. This is a turnaround from 3.1% growth in 2009-10. The main reason is the good rains the state got in 2010 as against the poor monsoon of 2009. The production of food grains is expected to grow by 23%. Upto 155 metric tonnes is expected to be produced as against 126 metric tonnes in 2009-10. A 33% increase is expected in the production of the kharif (monsoon) crop. The production of cereals and pulses is expected to increase by 27.4% and 58%, respectively. The survey says food inflation, which was at a peak of 21.4% in May 2010, declined to 10.1% in November. However, from December it again started to increase and was 15.7% for January 2011. On the other hand, the inflation for non-food items, which was at a minimum of 14.8% in May 2010, increased to 23.9% in January 2011. The 10.9% growth in the services sector is led by financial, insurance, real estate and business services (10.5% growth) along with community and personal services (10.7%). There was cheer for industry, as the state eyes 9.1% growth in 2010-11. This is led by the construction boom, which saw just 3% growth in 2009-10, but this is expected to rise to 11%. Electricity, gas and water supply could experience 10.4% growth. The two areas experiencing growth less than that experienced in 2009-10 were manufacturing and trade. Manufacturing will see 8.6% growth in 2010-11 (10.3% the previous year), and trade, hotels etc 11.3% growth (12.5% the previous year). Tax revenue is expected to increase by 16.8% over the previous year. Total revenue expenditure of the state upto December 2010 was Rs 63,788 crore, 60.9% of the budgeted estimates.
The state’s overall debt is set to increase to Rs 2.09 lakh crore at the end of the current financial year from Rs 1.83 lakh crore last year – that’s a nearly 14% increase. However, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said that the Centre has restricted a state’s debt to 26.1% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and Maharashtra falls within the limit. “Maharashtra’s debt is around 23.68% of the GSDP, which is well within limits. Besides, most of the loans have been taken from the Centre itself,” he said. The state’s economic survey states that though the amount of interest payments have been steadily increasing from 2006-07 to 2010-11, the average cost of borrowings have declined from 9.7% in 2007-08 to 9% in 2010-11. For the current financial year, the interest payment is around Rs 16,469 crore.
No comments:
Post a Comment