Maharashtra budget 2024: Interim budget pro-contractor; multiple assurances with eye on elections: Uddhav Thackeray

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Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray Tuesday said the Maharashtra interim budget is full of assurances with an eye on upcoming elections and termed it pro-contractor. "There is no clarity on what happened to the announcements made in last year's budget," Thackeray told reporters.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had performed bhoomi poojan for a Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial, but the project has seen little progress.

The bhoomipujan for the memorial of the Maratha king in the Arabian Sea was performed in December 2016. "The budget presented today is full of assurances keeping the elections in mind. The announcements made are big and alluring, actually, it (the budget) is for contractors," Thackeray added.

While the working class and farmers are in distress, people don't trust the government, the former chief minister alleged.

Earlier, Maharashtra Finance Minister Ajit Pawar presented a Rs 6,00,522 crore interim budget for 2024-25 with a revenue deficit of Rs 9,734 crore in the state legislative assembly in Mumbai.

The budget proposed no new taxes. A supplementary budget (full budget) will be presented after the Lok Sabha elections, Pawar said.

With projected revenue receipts of Rs 4,98,758 crore and revenue expenditure of Rs 5,08,492 crore, there will be a revenue deficit of Rs 9,734 crore, said Pawar, who joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government as deputy chief minister in July 2023. He was finance minister in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government too.

School Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar read out the budget in the Legislative Council.

"The budget focuses on the implementation of welfare schemes for the youth, women, the poor and farmers," Pawar said in the assembly.

The government aims to expand the state's economy to USD 1 trillion through sustainable, environment-friendly and inclusive development, he said.

In the Annual Plan 2024-25, an outlay of Rs 1.92 lakh crore has been proposed which includes Rs 15, 893 crore for Scheduled Castes Sub Plan and Rs 15,360 crore for Tribal Development Sub Plan, he said.

The government has succeeded in keeping fiscal deficit and revenue deficit within the limits set by the Fiscal Responsibility and Financial Management Act, Pawar said.

The fiscal deficit for 2024-25 is projected at Rs 99,288 crore.

An outlay of Rs 18,165 crore has been proposed for District Annual Plan, a 20 percent increase over the previous year.

A scheme would be brought in to provide pink auto-rickshaws to 5,000 women in ten major cities, Pawar announced. (With inputs from PTI)