Goa CM starts consultations ahead of state budget

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar today began consultation with the senior government officers ahead of the state budget that would be presented on March 18.
Parrikar held three-hour-long meeting with the heads of departments in the state ministerial block this morning to discuss the budget, which the government has already started drafting.
"It was the first meeting in the series of consultations planned by the Chief Minister. He will meet all the government departments, stakeholders and professionals before penning the final draft of the budget," a source close to the chief minister told PTI.
Besides holding meetings in Panaji, Parrikar would also travel to rural parts of the state to get inputs from people living there for the budget, an official said.

The budget to be tabled on March 18, on the first day of the State Legislative Assembly session, would be the second one by Manohar Parrikar as a Finance Minister in his current tenure.
BJP-led government was sworn in on March 9 last year, after the party and its allied had a landslide victory in the state legislative assembly election.

Sources stated that drafting the budget would be a tightrope walk for Parrikar as the state's assured income from the mining activity has stopped after Supreme Court put on hold the mining in the state.
The government was expecting Rs 1,000 crore in the form of royalty from mining. The state is already losing Rs 150 crore after it exempted Value Added Tax (VAT) from petrol.

"New avenues of resource mobilisation will be explored in the budget. But the financial experts will have to ensure that it does not tax the common men," a senior official said.