Maharashtra to grow at 9 per cent

Overall slowdown, however, pulls down economy by 0.7%: Economic Survey.

Though Maharashtra is expected to log a 9 per cent growth rate during the current fiscal, which is better than the national average of 8.7 per cent, the overall slowdown in the economy had an adverse impact as this rate is set to get lowered by 0.7 per cent over 2006-07, according to the state's economic survey.

The major driver for the 9 per cent growth would be the industrial sector, which clocked the double-digit growth of 10.4 per cent, up 1.2 per cent compared with the last fiscal year.

However, both the primary sector, which includes sectors like agriculture, fishing, dairy, and mining and the service sector registered a decline in growth rates compared with the previous year.

While the primary sector was down to 5.7 per cent in the current fiscal from 6.6 per cent in the last fiscal, services dropped 0.8 per cent from 9.9 per cent during 2006.

The state's revenue "" both tax and non tax "" almost doubled from Rs 31,103 crore in 2002-03 to Rs 60,267 crore in 2006-07 and is likely to touch Rs 68,299 crore, an increase of 13.3 per cent, in the current fiscal.

After the adoption of Fiscal Responsibility and Budgetary Management Act (FRBM), the state expects to achieve a revenue surplus of Rs 511 crore (0.1 percent of the gross state domestic product) during the current year from a revenue deficit of 2.4 per cent. The fiscal deficit is down to 3.1 per cent during 2007-08 from 5.3 per cent in the previous year.

The percentage of plan outlay to the total expenditure increased to 24.3 per cent from 8.4 per cent in 2002-03.

Though the overall agriculture growth rate has shown a decline, the state has managed to score well on the foodgrain front by registering an increase of nearly 20 per cent in the current fiscal as compared with the previous year. Foodgrain production is expected to touch 15.28 million tonnes.

The consumer price index (CPI) rose 10.5 per cent in rural areas and 7.8 per cent in urban areas.

The economic survey expresses concern over the failure of both private players and state government companies in ensuring capacity addition in the power sector when the state is facing a peak load shortage of 4,618 Mw.

No capacity addition was made in the current financial year, it noted. The state's installed capacity, including its share from the central sector, stood at 17,984 Mw during the last fiscal.

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AT A GLANCE

Industrial sector registers 10.4 per cent, up 1.2% over previous year

Agriculture and services fall 0.9 and 0.8 per cent respectively.

Revenues rise two-fold during the last five years

Expects a revenue surplus of Rs 511 crore during 2007-08

Foodgrain output up 20 per cent