Maha FM rules out levying new taxes for drought-hit Marathwada

Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has ruled out any possibility of levying any new taxes in view of the drought conditions in Marathwada region.
The intention behind Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis remark on "if need be government will raise loans", was to assure the farmers that the government stands behind them in the hour of crisis, he said.
"No new taxes will be levied in the drought-hit Marathwada region," he said at a media meet organised by Mumbai Press Club here yesterday.
Mungantiwar said that the government will have to take a review of all the irrigation projects implemented in Marathwada in the last four years.

"Raising additional loans is not bad idea as the state is well within its fiscal limits in relation to its gross state domestic produce," the minister said.
He accused the previous Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government of not following fiscal discipline.
Replying to queries over the cost escalation due to drought conditions, he said that the exact quantum of allocation required will only be known after the late monsoon rains this month.