Editor, Goemkarponn
AERIAL VIEW
Coming back to Goa, Sawant has a job cut out. He has two different issues 1) The rising debts, which has soared up to Rs 35000 cr & 2) Mining resumption.
Despite the government going gung ho on mining resumption there is no sign of it yet.
Yes around 8 blocks have been auctioned but the operations have not yet started or the auction amount has been deposited. Overall, Sawant’s projections of budget 2023-24 have gone for a toss.
He had projected a revenue from mining resumption including auctions of Rs 1000 cr, which did not materialise as the bidders are not ready to pay the amount in one go.
So where does Sawant get the moolah from, mining hasn’t started the Tourism is at all time low, no industries coming in and on top of all this the expenditure on infrastructure development and events organisation are increasing with every passing day.
SURAJ NANDREKAR
Editor, Goemkarponn
In a fortnight or so the Goa Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant will present the State budget 2024-25 during the 6-day Goa Legislative Assembly session, which has been convened from February 2.
The Chief Minister has already started his pre-budget meetings with the stakeholders like tourism, liquor, transportation, industrialists etc.
Since this is an election year and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is vying for the third consecutive term, it seems like it would be a populist Budget both at the Centre and the State.
The Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is unlikely to hurt people’s sentiments by hiking taxes.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s recent statement that the February 1 Budget would just be a vote on account and that industry should not expect any major announcement could mean that she will uphold the convention surrounding an interim Budget. Of the four interim Budgets presented since 2000, those of 2004, 2014 and 2019 ignored the convention of refraining from making big announcements of schemes or taxation measures.
The coming Budget, despite being an interim budget owing to the upcoming national elections, has generated significant interest among economy watchers in view of the government’s new stated ambition of making India the third largest economy by 2030.
Coming back to Goa, Sawant has a job cut out. He has two different issues 1) The rising debts, which has soared up to Rs 35000 cr & 2) Mining resumption.
Despite the government going gung ho on mining resumption there is no sign of it yet.
Yes around 8 blocks have been auctioned but the operations have not yet started or the auction amount has been deposited. Overall, Sawant’s projections of budget 2023-24 have gone for a toss.
He had projected a revenue from mining resumption including auctions of Rs 1000 cr, which did not materialise as the bidders are not ready to pay the amount in one go.
So where does Sawant get the moolah from, mining hasn’t started the Tourism is at all time low, no industries coming in and on top of all this the expenditure on infrastructure development and events organisation are increasing with every passing day.
Shockingly, in the last 11 years since BJP has taken over Goa’s debts have increased by Rs 30k cr. In 2012 the debts were around Rs 4k cr which today stand at Rs 35k cr.
This despite, most of the infrastructure projects being sanctioned by the Centre, thanks to Nitin Gadkariji.
Moving ahead, Sawant needs to balance the infrastructure development with the revenue generation.
He has to also cash in on the popularity of liquor amongst tourists in Goa and increase the taxes accordingly. We are not saying make it very expensive but some increase is needed. A 300 ml beer in neighbouring Karnataka costs Rs 150, which is Goa costs Rs 60, the same in Maharashtra costs Rs 200.
So looking at the above prices we still have scope for increasing a fair amount.
Secondly, imposing heavy taxes on glass bottled beers as the State is spending a huge amount on waste management. It is now time that we adopt the “Producer Pays” policy, followed by European countries.
Let the producers manage their own waste or atleast pay for it.
The people of Goa and so also the entire nation are up in arms for the rise in Petrol, diesel and Liquiefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) so it would be in the interest of the government in election year to announce some sops in this regard.
Despite Goa spending huge amount on road expenditure the roads are clogged during peak hours in major cities. It is time the government makes the public transport more efficient and encourage people to take this mode of transport so that the congestion is reduced.
Maybe introducing 200-300 more KTC electirc buses could solve the issue.
