Maharashtra’s 2023-24 budget is based on the principle of ‘Panchamrut’, a five –point plan of action which will focus on farmers, women, youth, employment and environment. It is claimed to be a step forward towards achieving the object of a trillion-dollar state economy by 2030. The budget, the last before the next assembly election in October 2024, is considered more political in nature than economic.
Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had a day earlier tabled the Economic Survey 2022-23 in the state legislature. The survey has predicted that the state’s economy in 2022-23 is expected to grow at 6.8 per cent as against 7 per cent of the national economy. Before the Covid pandemic hit, the state economy had grown by 9.1 per cent in 2021-22. Fadnavis is confident that the economy will regain its earlier speed. Chief minister Eknath
Shinde has claimed that this budget will fulfil the needs, aspirations of women and the middle class sections. In a way, the focus on the welfare of farmers and development of the agriculture sector has endorsed the promise in the first and last state budget by the government led by Shinde and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Inter alia, the budget has promised several measures aimed at providing relief to the state’s farming community, which generates nearly 55 percent of rural employment though its contribution to the economy is barely 12 percent. The cultivators of onion, mango and other seasonal crops have been badly hit by the untimely rains over the past week. Expectedly, the opposition has complained that the assistance is unsatisfactory and has demanded more concrete measures.
The state budget’s highlight for the farmers is to provide additional Rs. 6000 per year to them under a new scheme, titled “Namo Shetkari Mahasanman Nidhi” in the coming year. This amount will be on top of the Rs. 6000 already being provided under the “Pradhan Mantri Kisan Nidhi Samman scheme” launched by the Union government.
Another scheme for the agriculturists is the “Mahakrishivikas Yojana,”which was dubbed by the opposition as a remake of an earlier such plan. Under this scheme, all aspects of farming, beginning from production and encompassing also the value addition process, will be financed by the government. Preparation of an integrated crop-based plan for each taluka and district will consider the agricultural scenario in that geographical area.
The government is confident that this will substantially enhance income of the beneficiary farmers. But a provision of Rs. 3000 crore being made for this the Mahakrishivikas Yojana for the next five years is considered too inadequate considering the number of farmers across the state.
The government has provided a sum of Rs. 6900 crore in the 2023-24 budget for a state-level financial scheme for farmers, who can register their names by paying a token fee of just one rupee on the portal of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. The crop insurance premium will paid by the government. Farmers have been urged to join the scheme for which an annual outlay of Rs. 3312 crore has been proposed for implementation of the scheme.
The budget has been peppered with attractive announcements, meant to target various sections of the population. While the government has claimed that its fiscal roadmap is inclusive, opposition leaders have criticised it by calling it as a “carrot dangling in front of people” with an eye on the next Lok Sabha and assembly elections.
The Economic Survey for 2022-2023 in fact had already indicated the direction the state economy was proceeding in. According to it, the state economy will grow by 6.8 per cent during the year. In the same duration, the Indian economy is expected to grow by 7 per cent.
During the year, the agricultural and allied activities sector will grow by 10.2 per cent, the industry sector by 6.1 per cent and the services sector by 6.4 per cent. At current prices, the state GDP is expected to be Rs. 35,27,084 crore and the real SGDP (at constant 2011-2012 prices) would be Rs. 21,65,558 crore. Although state pace of growth of the state economy is slower as compared with the national average, the state’s share in the national GDP is highest at 14 per cent. According to state projections, the per capita state income for 2022-2023 will be Rs. 242,247, an impressive increase over the previous year, which was Rs. 215,233. Considering the national picture, Maharashtra’s per capita income is at the fifth position after Karnataka, Telangana, Haryana and Tamil Nadu though the state is the second largest in terms of population.
The state’s revenue expenditure is expected to be Rs 427,780 crore, a fact that should caution the planners as it was Rs. 392,857 crore in 2021-2022. Another worrying factor can be the share of capital receipts in total receipts in 2022-2023, estimated to be 26.5 per cent. On the other hand, the share of capital expenditure in total expenditure would be 22 per cent. The share of developmental revenue expenditure in the total revenue expenditure was 67.8 per cent in 2021-2022, the Survey says.
For the period from June 2020 till December 2022, the state attracted investment proposals of Rs 2.74 lakh crore with employment generation potential of 4.27 lakh jobs under the ‘Magnetic Maharashtra’ scheme. As a result of the adoption of the liberalisation policy August 1991. the state has approved 21442 industrial projects with a total investment of Rs. 17,48,648 crore till December 2022.
The FDI flow into the state between April 2000 and September 2022 was Rs. 10,88,502 crore, which was 28.5 percent of the country’s total FDI inflows, reasserting the prime position of Maharashtra in the national economy. The performance on the medium, small and micro industry front was also positive. Till November 2022, the state had registered 20.43 lakh MSME’s. This comprised 19.80 lakh micro, 57000 lakh small and 6000 medium units, with their total job generation of 108.67 lakh. During the year, the state had received 435.7 lakh domestic tourists and 1.9 lakh foreign visitors against the tally of 392.3 lakh domestic and 12.6 lakh foreigners during 2020. The drop was due to the pandemic lockdown.
Shinde feels that the state budget will fulfil the needs and aspirations of women and the middle class. The government will keep its promises to the people. The double-engine government is running at a fast pace. This budget will add more speed to the onward march, he says.
