Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to present budget on March 18

Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will have to do a balancing act when he presents the budget on Monday with revenues falling due to ban on mining activity and some of the recent measures taken by the government putting strain on state finances.

Stating that he was facing an uphill task, Parrikar said on Friday that he would attempt to cut down on wasteful expenditure when he presents the budget on March 18, 2013. According to experts, the government would need to forgo revenues of an estimated Rs 1,000 crore by way of royalty on iron ore exports due to ban on mining activity, which is expected to continue for some more time.

On the other hand, the government has announced some measures like sharp reduction in VAT on petrol and introduced many social security schemes which would need to be funded in the next fiscal as well. However, with not many avenues to mobilise funds, the government is planning to control wasteful expenditure as one of the means to have additional resources.

Stating that he was facing an uphill task, Parrikar said that he would attempt to cut down on wasteful expenditure when he presents the budget.

"The wastage of money needs to be controlled. We are planning to table a zero-balancing budget," the Chief Minister said at an event at Panaji on Friday. The size of the budget in 2012 was Rs 9549 crore with fiscal deficit of Rs 755 crore.

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