₹57k cr demand after ₹7L cr budget

A TOTAL OF SIX ORDINANCES WERE TABLED IN THE ASSEMBLY ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE MONSOON SESSION

- Surendra P Gangan

MUMBAI: Fourteen weeks after the state government presented a ₹7-lakh-crore budget for FY 2025-26, it has tabled supplementary demands of ₹57,510 crore—a sum which is about 8.21% of the budget and the second-highest supplementary demand in the history of the state. Terming this a sign of the government's fiscal indiscipline, the opposition and experts said that with further supplementary demands likely to be tabled in December and March, it could cross 15% of the budget and result in an unprecedented rise in the fiscal deficit.

The supplementary demands tabled by finance minister Ajit Pawar on Monday will result in a whopping rise in revenue deficit and fiscal deficit. At the time of the budget presentation in March, the revenue deficit was ₹45,891 crore while the fiscal deficit was ₹13,6235 crore, the highest in Maharashtra's history. Experts and officials said the additional expense will result in borrowing if the government ends up spending the entire outlay. The government has estimated the debt burden by the end of FY 2025-26 to be ₹9.32 lakh crore.

"The revenue receipts of FY 2024-25 were 98.84% of the revised estimate of ₹49,8758 crore, which means that the deficit will anyway increase by ₹5,808 crore if carried forward to the current fiscal," said a senior finance department official. "The addition of supplementary demands of more than 8% is undesirable for any state, following a fiscal deficit. Although there is no regulation on limit, as per convention, supplementary demands should not cross 10% in a fiscal year. Looking at the history of previous supplementary demands by the Mahayuti, this year, the figure is expected to cross at least 15%. "