PANAJI
In a perceptible election oriented effort, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday presented the 2021-22 budget envisaging an aggregate overall revenue expenditure of Rs 21,646 crore laced with substantial provisions for welfare schemes and populist measures.
In a speech stretching beyond two hours, Sawant highlighted allocations of Rs 600-crores for hot-mixing of Goa's roads before the onset of the upcoming monsoon, a whopping Rs 3038 crores for the entire education portfolio, Rs 1719.89 for health which is about 19 per-cent higher than the current fiscal and a Rs 100-crore outlay for re-starting the defunct 'MLA local area development fund'.
Admitting the fiscal bloodbath of the pandemic and the maiming effect it had on the government finances and the State's economy, Sawant said, "due to the prevalence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) estimates for the year 2021-22 is estimated at Rs 89,421.61 crore with a growth rate of 9.72 % as compared to the year 2020-21."
Interestingly, Sawant did not give the estimates of revenue receipts, except for saying that income in 2021-22 is estimated to increase by 16-odd per-cent over the current fiscal's figures.
Sawant also deviated from the convention of presenting documents containing the revised estimates of income and expenditure of the current financial year's budget, thus giving no indication of the borrowing component for the year.
The revised income and expenditure estimates of the current financial year are admittedly expected to be far below the targets he set in the budget presented last year, ostensibly due to the pandemic.
Nonetheless, Sawant dedicated a brief couple of minutes in his speech to fleetingly reveal the financial condition of the State exchequer vis-a-vis the gross debt.
He simply said: "My Government has adopted a prudent fiscal policy and kept the deficit and debt stock, related to the GSDP, at a sustainable level."
There were no figures elaborating the quantum of borrowings, fiscal deficit or any other financial indicators to back up his claim.
Sawant also said that the fiscal deficit for the current year has been maintained at 2.96 per-cent of the Gross State Domestic Product and claimed that it was "within prescribed norms".
Arguing that several government offices are functioning from leased premises, Sawant announced an initial provision of Rs 50-crore in the budget for construction of a Rs 250-crore worth "tallest Administrative building" at Patto.
He also made a provision of Rs 5-crore for civil and renovation work on the Goa legislative assembly complex which has completed 20 years.
AVIATION SKILL CENTRE: Announcing that the first phase of the Mopa airport is expected to be commissioned by August 2022, Sawant said a 'Aviation Skill Development Centre' will be functional by October this year.
The Centre will aim to impart necessary skills and training to unemployed youth to be eligible for the various job opportunities at the greenfield international airport, will be functional from October 2021.
HOTMIXING ROADS: Sawant announced an outlay of Rs 600 crore this year to "construct, hotmix, repair and maintain" roads in good condition. Another 142-kilometer stretch of roads on the highways are also expected to be completed before the onset of the monsoon this year, he added.
He also said the various National Highway projects sanctioned and fully funded by the Centre are constantly being monitored to ensure time-bound completion.
100MW SOLAR PLANT: Envisaging several projects in the power sector, Sawant said his government has already entered into a memorandum of understanding for setting up of a centralised 100MW power plant and is in talks with the NTPC for additional projects aggregating another 200MW of solar power including a floating solar plant with central assistance.
