Mumbai: Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Eknath Khadse on Wednesday dubbed the budget presented by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar as mere "jugglery" and a "number game".
"The financial statement for 2012-13 is nothing but a
number game and mere jugglery," he said initiating a general
debate on the budgetary proposals in the lower house.
Observing that Maharashtra has become the leader among
all states in terms of debt, Khadse said the state currently
carries a debt burden to the tune of Rs 2,53,000 crore.
"Even the loans the government borrow are not spent on
the development works...63 per cent of revenue is spent on
salaries and provident fund contributions and another 14 per
cent on paying interest and repaying loans," he said.
Khadse charged that the government borrowed Rs 24,000
crore last year and utilised Rs 8,000 crore of the amount to
pay interest.
"This government is borrowing money to repay loans,"
he said, adding that the state`s debt has doubled over the
last seven years.
On sales tax, the senior BJP leader said,"You have
stated that your sales tax revenue expected this year is Rs
51,000 crore. But what is the sum that you have given as tax
refunds from 2005 to 2012? Rs 10,000 crore is owed as
refunds of sales tax (sic)," the opposition leader said.
He alleged that the government has done nothing to
boost up the revenue growth.
Rs 4,000 crore being collected in excess of targets of
the sales tax department is due to price rise. He said
"Every one rupee hike in the prices of petrol
automatically results in Rs 600 crore being deposited in the
government coffers. And we had three hikes in petrol price
this year," Khadse said.
PTI
