And, as expected Parsekar did pepper his Budget with as many sops, schemes and payouts as was possible. It being the last Budget before the State goes to the Assembly polls, due in early 2017, that much was certainly predictable. In doing that the Chief Minister, who also holds the Finance portfolio, has not done the Goan economy any favour. In fact the Budget may have done the economy a disfavour. The first reaction of many to the Budget is that it could be inflationary, as there are many promises but no new and specific revenue generating proposals.
As everyone looks to see what’s in the Budget for them, many will be smiling with what the Budget promises, but the bigger picture of what’s in it for Goa is often missed or even overlooked. Is this Budget growth oriented?
What this Budget has focused on is the mining industry and the Chief Minster has pandered to the miners and the other stakeholders. He assured them that the government was committed to seeing the industry back on the feet, and went on to propose a slew of measures, offering the industry major tax rebates soon after the Centre slashed the export duty. He met almost all of the demands from the miners, who are now in the fourth year since extraction has stopped. After giving the industry all these relaxations, the question that still remains unanswered is when will extraction of ore start.
As he started the speech the Chief Minister laid emphasis on the social, educational, health, housing, employment and infrastructure sectors. He announced, among other proposals, an award for the highest milk producing farmer, support under the Griha Adhar has been increased, the age limit for the Laadli Laxmi has been upped, the age limit eligibility for government jobs has been increased, there is a pension scheme for rickshaw drivers. Promises have been made, but from where is the money coming? Who is going to pay for it? There have been just few specific revenue generation proposals, except for increase in VAT on petrol, some marginal increases in tax and fee structures, it does appear that before we come to the end of the next financial year, borrowings by the this government will increase.
The price of petrol will go up as the Budget proposed that VAT on petrol that is already at 15 per cent will be increased by another 7 per cent taking it to 22 per cent. This Budget proposal came the same day when the Centre announced the petrol price would be hiked by Rs 3.07 a litre. Parsekar justified this by saying that in the last year, the price of petrol has been revised downward seven times. Last week the Chief Minister had hinted at a VAT increase, so it came as no surprise. One of the main reasons for the BJP coming to power was the assurance to cut the price of petrol and this was one of the first promises to be fulfilled. How does the party now expect to return to the people after raising the price of petrol, again? The U-turns that the government has taken on its promises are many, and this is just one.
With this Budget, Parsekar has successfully launched the 2017 Poll Express and it is now already running on the campaign track. Its destination is the Legislative Assembly and the ETA is March 2017. But the journey is long and the delays and detours on the way could be many leading to further expenses, from a Budget that hasn’t balanced revenue generation with expenditure.
