‘Tried to bring fiscal discipline’

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DCM and state finance minister Ajit Pawar and minister of state for finance Rajendra Mulak pose

Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday expressed satisfaction with the state budget for 2012-13 presented by his deputy and finance Minister Ajit Pawar.
“Despite all the liabilities, it’s a surplus budget that gives priority to agriculture, health, education, power generation and infrastructure development,” said the CM.
Mr Pawar, who holds the portfolio of finance, added, “I have made an effort to bring in fiscal discipline. The revenue receipts were in surplus, but due to exigency we had to make a provision for `1,900 crore as industrial development aid. However, by way of curbing leakage and opting for strict recovery of revenue measures, we expect to have a surplus of `152.49 crore.”
He added that when governing, provisions for farmers need to be made, and this time a package layout of `2,000 crore for cotton, paddy and soya bean farmers had been declared.
Speaking about the development projects, Mr Pawar said that for Mumbai, provisions have been made in the field of transport with an outlay of `2,899 crore proposed by the Union for the year 2012-13, of which `150 crore will be for MSRDC.
An outlay of `385 crore is proposed for Central Road Fund Scheme and roads of approximately 7,810 km will be developed.
The DCM added that the state is keen to complete the water transport project up to Madwa by 2014 and turn JJ Hospital into a superspeciality hospital, for which a provision of `650 crore has already been made.
Meanwhile, though the CM expressed concern over the fact that of the earning, as much as 63 per cent of it was spent on administrative expenses such as payment of employees (40 per cent), payment of interest (13.55 per cent) and pensions (9.80 per cent); he expressed satisfaction that without burdening the common man, the budget still makes provisions for development and infrastructure projects and is well on the way of achieving development at 8.5 per cent.