Maharashtra seeks ₹35,788 cr for unscheduled expenses, including Ladkin Bahin

Maharashtra’s budget is ₹6.69 lakh crore and the supplementary demands are an additional budget aimed at meeting unplanned expenditure

NAGPUR: The state government presented supplementary demands amounting to ₹35,788 crore on the first day of the winter session of the state legislature. This has taken the total sum in supplementary demands presented in the current fiscal to ₹1,30,677 crore, including ₹94,889 tabled in July this year. The supplementary demands tabled so far are 19.43% of the state’s budget, and the percentage is expected to go up further, after the last supplementary demands are tabled in February-March 2025.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (PTI)

Maharashtra’s budget is ₹6.69 lakh crore and the supplementary demands are an additional budget aimed at meeting unplanned expenditure. Typically, they are expected to be around 10% of the budget, and exceeding this is considered fiscal indiscipline, according to experts. The supplementary demands tabled on Monday are expected to increase the fiscal deficit already pegged at ₹1,10,355 crore.

“The increased supplementary budget brings with it the risk of more borrowings amid the debt stock of ₹7.83 lakh crore in FY 2024-25. The increased expenditure shown in the supplementary demands will entail either more borrowings or cutting down on the budgetary allocation for development works,” said an official from the finance department.

In July, the government tabled supplementary demands amounting to ₹94,889 crore, owing to the populist schemes announced by the state government ahead of the assembly elections. Among the schemes with major budgetary allocations was the Ladki Bahin Yojana, which requires ₹46,000 crore a year to transfer ₹1,500 a month in the bank accounts of 2.34 crore beneficiaries. Apart from this, the Annapurna Yojana, which offers three free LPG cylinders, and another scheme which offers a monthly stipend of ₹6,000 to ₹10,000 to youth, have placed a considerable burden on the state exchequer, compelling the government to make an additional budgetary allocation.

Rupesh Keer of Samarthan, an NGO that studies the state budget, said that the supplementary demands presented in the ongoing financial year are expected to eventually amount to more than 22% of the state’s budget. “Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, during a book release function when he was leader of the opposition three years ago, had said the supplementary demands should not exceed 7-10% of the total budget. As CM, how has he allowed such a whopping sum as supplementary demands? Even the Comptroller and Auditor General has, from time to time, slammed the government for its exponential supplementary demands. It also questioned the fiscal management of the government as there is no connection between the budgetary allocation and actual spending by the government,” he said.

The supplementary demands tabled on Monday in both houses of the state legislature include a provision of ₹1,400 crore for the Ladki Bahin scheme. The state government has spent ₹3,700 crore on the scheme since July 1 this year, and has already made a provision of ₹35,000 crore, till the end of the fiscal year.

The supplementary budget includes a provision of ₹450 crore for financial assistance to children orphaned in the Covid-19 pandemic; an allocation of ₹209 crore for the construction of Manora, an MLA hostel at Nariman Point; ₹60 crore for the enrolment of students from the Dhangar community in residential English schools; a provision of ₹557 crore to be transferred to Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited for Metro line 3; and ₹601 crore for the Pune Metro.

In addition, there is a provision of ₹10 crore for the transgender welfare board; ₹103 crore for the state government’s contribution to the Wadhwan port development; ₹214 crore as an honorarium for Home Guards; ₹500 crore capital expenditure for the implementation of an intelligent transport system on the Samruddhi Expressway between Mumbai and Nagpur.