Goa awaits revenue-neutral budget

Sandesh Prabhudesai
8 October 2001  

The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Goa is planning to present a revenue-neutral budget next year, provided the economy does not get crippled due to war waged by the USA against world terrorism.

It basically means that the state need not go for a major taxation exercise or borrowing, which is a normal annual exercise to rescue the state from financial crisis.

Chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who has worked out several methodologies to arrest revenue leakages and increase revenue generation, is quite confident since he has achieved above 40 per cent rise in collection than last year, in last six months.

"If the similar trend continues, I expect something between Rs 50 to 100 crore more collection than what was estimated in the budget", states Parrikar.

Reasoning out revenue-neutral budget next year, what he basically means that the additional revenue reserves will not compel him to go for further borrowings or fresh taxation measures for resources mobilisation.

On the contrary, he has concentrated more upon collecting pending arrears, plugging revenue leakages and exploring new areas for non-tax revenue. "Next year could be solely dedicated for strengthening these measures", states Rajib Sen, joint secretary, finance.

According to Parrikar, the revenue deficit of Rs 207 crore was brought down to Rs 140 crore in the budget estimate itself. However, in reality, it could drop down to even Rs 70 to 80 crore, if similar ongoing pace is maintained.

Your Comments Please