Meghalaya CM presents Rs 2,029 Cr deficit budget

The accomplishment of 'Mission 10' in 2028 will coincide with 10 years of the MDA government, he said.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma today tabled a Rs 2,029 crore deficit budget for 2024-25 financial year.

Sangma termed this budget budget as ‘Mission 10’ which is an action plan for building a 10 billion US dollar economy through leveraging 10 opportunities and providing 10 guarantees.

The accomplishment of ‘Mission 10’ in 2028 will coincide with 10 years of the MDA government, he said.
The total receipts is at Rs 27,072 crore, of which the revenue receipts are estimated at Rs 23,515 crore and capital receipts at Rs 3,557 crore, Sangma said in his budget speech.

Excluding borrowings of Rs 3,527 crore, the total receipts are estimated to be at Rs 23,545 crore, he said adding that the total expenditure is estimated at Rs 27,072 crore, of which the revenue expenditure is estimated at Rs 19,653 crore and capital expenditure at Rs 7,419 crore.
The estimated total expenditure is Rs 25,574 crore excluding repayment of loans of Rs 1,498 crore, he added.
He said the interest payments for 2024-25 are estimated at Rs 1,236 crore and pension payments at Rs 1,865 crore.
He said that the vision of doubling the state GSDP and making Meghalaya a 10-billion USDollar economy was set with GSDP of 2022-23 as the benchmark, when the state’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) was Rs 42,697 crore.
The GSDP for 2024-25 is projected at Rs 52,973 crore. The annual growth rate for the period 2023-25 has been a reassuring 11.4%. These numbers are encouraging and demonstrate the state is on track to achieve the 10 billion US Dollar economy target, Sangma added.
The chief minister also presented a gender budget and allocated Rs 5,271 crore for 2024-25. The overall allocation towards the climate action is Rs 4,501 crore.
Sangma said that the size of the youth budget that encompasses all the activities undertaken for the youth stands at Rs 2,853 crore.
Giving top importance to the education sector, Sangma said, he is allocating Rs 3,539 crore to strengthen all the interventions in the education sector, including Rs 1,335 crore as grants-in-aid salaries.
The CM said during the current year, the total estimated transfers from the Centre, which includes the share of central taxes, Fifteenth Finance Commission grants and centre’s share of centrally sponsored schemes is expected to increase to Rs 18,168 crore from the budget estimates of Rs 15,467 crore. The strong performance of the Indian economy provides the much required impetus to accelerate the growth of Meghalaya.
The share of central taxes is expected to increase to Rs 9,355 crore for the financial year 2024-25 from the revised estimates of Rs 8,471 crore for the current year, registering a growth of 10%, he said while informing that the state’s own tax revenue during the current year is Rs 3,262 crore, an increase of 23% over the previous year.
With the setting up of the State Economy Analysis Team and various reforms including the end-to-end computerization in the Excise department, the state’s own tax revenue is esimated at Rs 4,041 crore in 2024-25, of which GSTis Rs 1,995 crore, taxes on sales and trade is Rs 1,156 crore and excise is Rs 661 crore,” he said while adding the state’s own non-tax revenue was Rs 457 crore in 2022-23. With the increase in prospecting licenses approval by the Government of India and the expected resumption of scientific coal mining, the non-tax revenue is estimated at Rs 747 crore in 2024-25.
Further, the CM said, considering the overall anticipated transfers from the Centre and the projected state’s own receipts, I am estimating the total expenditure for 2024-25 at Rs 27,072 crore, of which revenue expenditure is Rs 19,653 crore and capital expenditure is Rs 7,419 crore.

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