Maharashtra’s Interim Budget focuses on women, minorities

MUMBAI: The Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra announced many schemes for minorities and women in its interim budget presented by state finance minister and deputy CM Ajit Pawar in the assembly on Tuesday. Pawar declared that he will come out with a full-fledged budget in the monsoon session of the assembly in July.

The state finance minister announced special aid worth Rs 40 crore to minority community members living in rural clusters and financial help to Madrassa schools and various aid packages for women in rural areas , including a Rs 183 crore to support education and healthcare for girls. He also declared recruitment of over 61,000 cops by the Maharashtra police which will be undertaken soon.

The budget granted Rs 2,836 crore to build new roads in the state and Rs 165 crore for new airports in cities like Shirdi, Amrawati and Solapur. The budget envisages revenue receipts of Rs 1,69,907 crore and expenditure of Rs 1,75,324 crore for the next financial year. The government has decided to continue tax exemption on items like wheat, rice, pulses, their flours, jaggery, turmeric and tamarind till next fiscal.

Similar exemptions would also continue on coriander seeds, fenugreek, chillies, parsley, coconut, papad , wet dates, currants and raisins, Solapuri chaddars, towels and the current concession on tea till March 31, 2015. "We had expected a small revenue surplus in the year 2013-14. Though we achieved revenue targets, we had to incur heavy expenditure for natural calamity relief, electricity bill subsidy and such other expenses. As a result, the revenue surplus has become a revenue deficit of Rs 3,017.23 crore. The decision taken this year, like electricity bill subsidy, etc. will also lead to a substantial increase in revenue expenditure in 2014-15 ," the minister said.

For 2014-15 , the draft plan of the state has not yet been discussed with the Planning Commission , the finance minister said.