Mahayuti presents supplementary budget of ₹75k crore, 2nd highest in state’s history

The officer said that the supplementary budgets presented in FY 2024-25 were ₹1.37 lakh crore or 20.49% of the budget size in that fiscal

MUMBAI: After tabling a supplementary budget of ₹75,286 on Monday—necessitated by spends on populist schemes such as Ladki Bahin—the state government is now on the verge of crossing the set norms for supplementary budget expenditure. The staggeringly high amount, which is 17.52 % of the annual budget, is the second highest ever tabled at one go in Maharashtra’s history, and is against the legislative norm of keeping a supplementary budget below 10%.

Mahayuti presents supplementary budget of ₹75k crore, 2nd highest in state’s history

A supplementary budget is the estimate for expenditure outside the annual budget presented in March, and is meant for unforeseen expenses. The budget presented on Monday by finance minister Ajit Pawar, however, has provisions for many ongoing schemes such as Ladki Bahin and expenditure that is definitely not sudden or unforeseen.

The state government had tabled supplementary demands of ₹57,509 crore in the monsoon session in July, taking the total of the two supplementary budgets to ₹1.33 crore against the annual budget of ₹7.57 lakh crore. In July 2024, the Eknath Shinde government had tabled the highest ever supplementary budget of ₹94,889 crore after announcing its vote-catching schemes such as Ladki Bahin and Annapurna Yojana just two months before the assembly polls.

“Ladki Bahin, with its monthly bill of ₹3,400 crore, is taking a huge toll on the budget,” said a finance department official. “The government has been footing the bill for this by diverting funds from other departments and schemes such as the tribal development department and the Shiv Bhojan Thali scheme.”

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The officer said that the supplementary budgets presented in FY 2024-25 were ₹1.37 lakh crore or 20.49% of the budget size in that fiscal. “It was 17.5% in the earlier year when it was ₹1.05 lakh crore,” he said. “Supplementary demands crossing the customary threshold is a sign of fiscal indiscipline. It means that the revenue and fiscal deficits, which are estimated to be ₹45,891 crore and ₹1.36 lakh crore respectively in FY 2025-26, will increase as the estimated revenue remains the same or is below target.”

The officer added that with an outstanding loan of ₹9.32 lakh crore, the government too had limitations in raising further loans, and thus would have to drop the schemes and programmes announced in the annual budget. “The cut of around 20% in the main budget every year is also the result of the high supplementary demands,” he said.

Rupesh Keer of Samarthan, an NGO that studies the state budget, said that the government had been continuously breaching the norms set for the supplementary budget. “The estimates committee of the state legislature, in its report in 2021-22, had stated that the government was expected to keep the supplementary budget in the range of 5% to 10% of the main budget,” he said. “The government’s crossing this limit to over 20% is a sign of fiscal indiscipline. The diversion of ₹549 crore from other departments like tribal development for the government’s pet scheme, Ladki Bahin, is also a dangerous trend.”