Parrikar presents Rs 10k cr Goa budget

 

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday presented a Rs 10,053.24 crore budget in the Legislative Assembly here, using a poem by senior BJP leader and former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to start off.

Parrikar, who also holds the Finance portfolio, on Monday presented his second budget after becoming Chief Minister for the second time following 2012 Assembly polls.

For the first time in the history of Goa Assembly, the budget was presented in Konkani, instead of in English.

The budget size is 9.8 per cent bigger than the last year. The 'planned' size of the budget is Rs 4,491 crore, against Rs 3,485 crore for the year 2012-13.

The Chief Minister has expected 12 per cent GDP growth for the fiscal 2013-14 against 8.94 per cent for 2012-13.

He conceded that several of his expectations from the last budget could not be achieved due to unforeseen circumstances such as halt to the mining industry.

Parrikar said normally 20-21 per cent of GDP comes from mining, but Goa lost a revenue of Rs 1,400 crore last fiscal due to onoging suspension of mining in the state, which had hit one lakh people.

"Greed of some big people has affected the livelihood of smaller people," Parrikar said, indirectly referring to the illegal mining by big companies, which led to Supreme Court suspending mining in the state last year.