The administration has begun the preparations for Budget 2017-18, despite the State being under the election code of conduct where no policy decisions can be taken. A new government will be formed only after March 11 and since the Budget has to be presented by March 31, the government that is formed will get less than 20 days to formulate the Budget, an exercise that usually takes a couple of months as besides being a financial statement of the year past and the financial allocations for the next financial year, the Budget lowers and raises taxes and duties, and also presents the plans and policies that the government intends to take up during the year. With little time for a new government to produce a fullfledged Budget, Goa can expect a statement of accounts to meet expenditure for three to four months and a complete Budget during the Monsoon session of the Assembly. This has been done in the past when governments have gone in for a vote on account in March and a full Budget in July.
The Budget this year will be important as it will not only give an inkling of the policies and plans of the new government but will also indicate how the same government will address the issues and problems of the mining industry that has been stagnant for the past almost five years. Though mining operations have commenced in the State, the extraction and export of ore is still far behind the maximum that the Supreme Court has allowed in the State. The various issues that are involved in mining will have to be tackled first and the Budge is the best document in which the government can present its plans for this sector.
Besides, the government has to also look at the tourism industry and ensure that this one does not meet a fate similar to the mining sector, as fears exist that the Supreme Court decision on sale of alcohol along highways could have an adverse impact on the tourism potential of the State. Already reeling with the mining ban that was later lifted, the ban on alcohol could hit the economy badly, despite the Tourism Department quite confident that tourists in Goa do not come only for the alcohol.
While those are industry related issues, growing public debt is also one other area that the new government will have to tackle. It being the first Budget of a new government, one can expect that there could be some harsh decisions taken that will lead to bringing the economy back in shape. In the past over four years, schemes and sops of every kind have placated the people but that can’t continue for too long as doles so not allow an economy to grow, but instead hinder progress.
The issues before the new government are many and the finance minister will be required to tread a fine line between giving the people what they want and infusing new life into the economy, which will also include policy and programmes that will create job opportunities. The State has been on the slow lane to progress for quite a while now and the acceleration that was required years ago has still not come. The long period of the election code of conduct, especially after Goa has already voted over three weeks ago and the counting is still 12 days away, giving a five week gap between voting and counting where policy decisions cannot be taken because of the code is in force, has further put the brakes on industry.
Budget 2017-18, which will be presented in March, will therefore, be a bland blend of accounting and meeting financial exigencies. The meat of the Budget will probably come later, in July.
