The newly formed government in Goa presented its first budget today and announced its focus on sectors like education and agriculture. The budget was presented by chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who also holds finance ministry.
Presenting the budget, Parrikar said that the current budget comes as a revenue surplus budget of ₹202 crore. He has estimated total revenue of ₹10,872 crore and expenditure of ₹10,670 crore. The total size of budget, which was ₹14,694 crore in the financial year 2016-2017, has increased to ₹16,270 crore. In the budget, the chief minister also stated that per capita income of Goa stands at number 1 in the country with an average of ₹2,71,793.
Predicting a 11 percent growth in the coming fiscal in GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product), Parrikar stated that there has been a 3 fold rise in the funding received from the central government. In the last fiscal, funds received from central government were ₹3224.61 crore, which accounts to 22.4 percent of the total state budget.
With the focus being on sectors like agriculture and education, the state government has allocated ₹172 crore to agriculture with a prediction of 6 percent growth in the sector. Along with proposing a scheme of promoting commercial crops, the emphasis will be on horticulture and floriculture. Also, a subsidy of ₹10,000 per hectare for sugarcane production is proposed.
The budget has a special emphasis on the schools educating in mother tongue of the students. An additional fund of ₹6 crore has been sanctioned for schools operating in Konkani or Marathi medium. 50 crores have been allocated for students who did not receive laptops under cyber age project in the last tenure of the government. CM added that a total of 3.6 percent of GSDP will be spent on education.
The other notable allocations include ₹900 crore for social sector, ₹475 crore for women and child development and ₹190 crore for tribal development. Public works department will get ₹1900 crore whereas ₹105 crore will be spent on hosting the matches of U-17 FIFA World Cup and 2018 National Games 2018.
There is also a proposal of banning plastic bags and to provide LPG connection to every family in the state in order to make the state kerosene free.