Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led State government on Monday presented supplementary demands worth ₹11,104 crore for the current fiscal on the first day of the budget session of the State legislature. This comes three months after Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar presented supplementary demands worth ₹9,489 crore in the winter session.
A supplementary demand is an additional grant for the government to meet its expenditure.
Almost 80% of the demands are reserved for the power sector with ₹2,804 crore towards covering the expenditure on subsidy given to the agricultural pump holders, power loom and power consumers. Besides, ₹991 crore is towards the expenditure on the repayment of first instalment of principal amount of loan to be given to the Maharashtra Electricity Distribution Company under Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana and ₹4,959 crore towards covering the expenditure of loan raised through bonds under Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana.
Transport department is the second highest seeker of supplementary provision with ₹1,012 crore for the concession given by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation in the passenger fare, which are 100% reimbursed by the State government.
Ironically, the supplementary demands expose an expenditure of ₹8 crore for advertisements and publicity for ‘jal poojan’ and ‘bhoomi pojan’ of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial and inauguration of the Mumbai Metro Line, Shivadi Nhava-Sheva project, and railway projects under MUTP. The money was spent from the contingency fund citing the projects’ urgent nature.
The government has also sought a financial assistance ₹14.07 crore for the legal heirs of the farmers who have committed suicide.
The government has also sought ₹229 crore and ₹280 crore towards a housing scheme for Scheduled Caste and Nav Boudha population.
The BJP, in the past, had targeted the Congress-led government for raising higher supplementary demands, calling it a financial indiscipline. It was Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who had criticised the then Congress-NCP government in 2011 for presenting supplementary demands worth thousands of crores. “The supplementary demands in this financial year run into around ₹33,000 crore, which is a record by this government. This is the height of financial indiscipline and mismanagement. We are going to raise these questions in the Assembly and make the government answerable,” said Prithviraj Chavan, senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister.
Ever since it came to power in October 2014, the BJP government has presented supplementary demands worth ₹80,000 crore.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, in its report on State finances for the financial year 2014-15, had come down on the State over its unnecessary, excessive supplementary provisions.
