TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: It won’t be easy and Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar knows it. He has begun the exercise of formulating the upcoming State Budget 2015-16, and amidst the severe financial crunch facing the State appears looking for ideas on resource mobilization.
Speaking to Herald, Parsekar said that he has already begun the exercise of planning the Budget. Asked specifically, what measures he would take to mobilize additional resources for the State coffers, Parsekar said, “You tell me, what should we do?”
The Parsekar government’s first Assembly session is likely to be held somewhere in the end of February or first week of March. “I will hold the next assembly session in February or March. It will be a Budget session,” he said.
Parsekar, who has taken over the baton from Manohar Parrikar, has to ride through an acute financial crunch.
The closure of mining operations has done away with nearly Rs 1,000 crore revenue earned from the industry and the tourism industry has also reported a drop in foreign tourist arrivals.
However, officials from the Commercial Taxes department say that revenue collection is not low as compared to 2013-14. “The revenue collected for the month of November is 15-17 per cent more than what we collected last year during the same month,” he said.
The State which has imposed 5 per cent VAT on petrol is also looking at revenue of around Rs 75 crore annually.
Experts feel that the oncoming budget will not be very promising as Parsekar has already hinted that he would implement social welfare schemes looking at available resources.
