Panaji, Feb 8 (IANS) Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday presented a budget of Rs 26,855 crore, with a revenue surplus of Rs. 1,704 crore.
“Total budget size is Rs. 26,855 crores of which revenue expenditure is Rs 20,000 crore and capital expenditure is Rs 6,855 crore, with a revenue surplus of Rs. 1,704 crore,” Sawant said.
The Chief Minister said that the gross state domestic product (GSDP) is expected to witness a growth of 13.87 per cent.
Goa received Rs 750 crore as financial assistance from the Centre for fiscal 2023-24 and this is expected to rise to Rs 1,506 crore for 2024-25 for various schemes, he said.
Reacting to the budget, leader of opposition Yuri Alemao said, “The action taken report on Budget announcement 2023-2024 once again made the BJP government under Pramod Sawant fail with only 27.9 per cent of the announcements fulfilled in the ffiscal year. Out of the 390 announcements, 109 are completed, 279 are initiated and two dropped.”
“Big announcement, zero fulfilment is the policy of the BJP government under Sawant. A Rs 26,855.56 crore budget for 2024-25 is an attempt to create a ‘feel good factor’ looking at the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. In reality, this budget is ‘good for nothing’,” Alemao said.
Goa Forward Party MLA Vijai Sardesai said, “The economic survey clearly shows that most of the sectors except construction and hotels are on the decline. In fact, banking and finance was down by 25 per cent in FY 2022-23.
“How can the GSDP increase by 10 per cent, a rate higher than the national GDP growth, when the banking sector suffers such a sharp decline? The government has shown a higher rate so that it can take more loans.
“Many announcements in this budget have been recycled from last year’s budget. Last year, the budget implementation was only one-fourth (25 per cent). This shows that announcements are made only on paper, while the implementation part is absent,” Sardesai said.
