Chief Minister Conrad Sangma today presented the budget for 2024-25 with a fiscal deficit of Rs 2,029 crore, which is around 3.83 per cent of the GSDP.
The estimated total receipts at Rs 27,072 crore of which the revenue receipts are estimated at Rs 23,525 crore and capital receipts at Rs 3,557 crore. Excluding borrowings of Rs 3,527 crore, the total receipts are estimated to be Rs 23,545 crore.
On the expenditure side, the total estimated expenditure is at Rs 27,072 crore of which the revenue expenditure is estimated at Rs 19,653 crore and capital expenditure at Rs 7,429 crore. Excluding payment of loans of Rs 1,498 crore, the estimated total expenditure is Rs 25,574 crore.
Interest payments for 2024-25 are estimated at Rs 1,236 crore and pension payments at Rs 1,865 crore.
According to Sangma, government expenditure has more than doubled from Rs 12,159 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 25,052 crore in the current financial year.
“This was achieved through better performance on centrally sponsored schemes, attracting investments through externally aided projects, improving State’s own revenues and careful management of State Finances. In programme after programme, we have been able to leverage additional funding based on our excellent performance and timely completion of projects,” he said.
According to Sangma, Meghalaya is one of the few states that gets bonus installments under schemes like Jal Jeevan Mission and National Health Mission. He also said that agencies like IFAD and World Bank are providing additional allocations to expand the State’s ongoing projects in agriculture and road infrastructure.
“Under the Special Assistance to States for Capital Investments, our allocations have been increasing exponentially. For 2023-24, the budget estimates for the scheme were Rs 1,003 crore. I am pleased to inform this august House that we have already got approvals for Rs 1,987 crore, close to double the budgeted amount,” he added.
Sangma said his vision of doubling the State GSDP and making Meghalaya a 10-billion US Dollar economy was set with GSDP of 2022-23 as the benchmark, when the State’s GSDP was Rs 42,697 crore or 5.3 billion US Dollar. The GSDP for 2024-25 is projected at Rs 52,973 crore or 6.6 billion US Dollar. He informed that the annual growth rate for the period 2023-25 has been a reassuring 11.4 per cent.
“These numbers are encouraging and demonstrate the State is on track to achieve the 10 billion US Dollar economy target,” he said.
The chief minister said that during the current year, the total estimated transfers from the Centre, which includes the share of central taxes, Fifteenth Finance Commission grants and centre’s share of centrally sponsored schemes is expected to increase to Rs 18,168 crore from the budget estimates of Rs 15,467 crore. He also said that the share of central taxes is expected to increase to Rs 9,355 crore for FY 2024-25 from the revised estimates of Rs 8,471 crore for the current year, registering a growth of 10 per cent.
He also informed that the State’s own Tax revenue during the current year is Rs 3,262 crore, an increase of 23 per cent over the previous year. With the setting up of the State Economic Analysis Team and various reforms including the end-to-end computerisation in the Excise Department, Sangma estimated the State’s own tax revenue at Rs 4,041 crore in 2024-25, of which GST is Rs 1,995 crore, taxes on sales and trade is Rs 1,156 crore and excise is Rs 661 crore.
“The State’s own non-tax revenue was Rs 457 crore in 2022-23. With the increase in prospecting licenses approval by the Government of India and the expected resumption of scientific coal mining, the non-tax revenue is estimated at Rs 747 crore in 2024-25,” he added.
Sangma said that considering the overall anticipated transfers from the Centre and the projected State’s own receipts, he is estimating the total expenditure for 2024-25 at Rs 27,072 crore, of which Revenue expenditure is Rs 19,653 crore and capital expenditure is Rs 7,419 crore.
“The projected capital expenditure is almost four times higher than the value in 2018-19. The annual growth rate during the seven-year period 2018-25 for capital expenditure is a staggering 26 per cent, compared to an 11 per cent growth on the revenue expenditure,” he said.
The chief minister said that the State government has completely streamlined the payment of salaries, pensions, and other benefits to the 52,829 government employees, 35,403 pensioners, more than 21,000 personnel drawing grant-in-aid salaries, 24,039 SSA and other teachers, 28,450 wage employees, 7,051 ASHA workers and 12,324 Anganwadi workers and helpers.
He also said that the increased government expenditure has enabled the State to complete and initiate several capital projects in the sectors of roads and bridges, water supply, power, sports, information technology, tourism and urban development.
“Social infrastructure like schools and hospitals are being comprehensively renovated and upgraded. Administrative infrastructures like block offices and police stations are being renovated and reconstructed for the first time at scale. Development is reaching every village and locality in the State in the form of new roads, piped water connections, food processing units, community halls, water harvesting structures, and play fields. For the first time in the history of the State, a range of beneficiary-oriented programmes that directly benefit our farmers, women and youth are being universalised. Programmes like PRIME, FOCUS, CM-CARE, YESS Meghalaya, Green Meghalaya and Skills Meghalaya have become household names. The State’s new umbrella programme for employment generation, CM-ELEVATE, has garnered unprecedented response,” Sangma said.
