A four-day budget session of the Maharashtra State Legislature will commence on Monday and an interim budget for the year 2024-25 will be presented by the state government. The session will be held between February 26 and March 1, during which Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar is likely to present the vote-on-account since this is an election year.
The vote-on-account is the permission that government seeks from the house to spend the funds for a few months in the financial year or a period till the newly elected government takes over. The newly elected government then presents the full budget
According to officials, on February 26, supplementary demands for the year 2023-24 will be tabled on the first day of the session and condolence resolutions will be passed for those members of the house who passed away this year including BJP MLA Rajendra Patni and former chief minister Manohar Joshi.
While supplementary demands will be discussed and approved in the morning on February 27, Finance Minister Ajit Pawar will present the budget in both the houses in the afternoon. The official said that provisions of expenditure will be made in the interim budget for four months from April 1, 2024 to July 31, 2024, which will include salary and allowances of government employees, loan instalments, interests and expenditure incurred on Lok Sabha elections.
A discussion on the budget would also take place on February 28 and March 1, the third and fourth day of the session, and it will be approved.On the last day, the Appropriation Bill will be approved along with the other government bills. The proposals of the ruling and opposition parties will also be discussed in the session. Since it is an election year, the government is likely to table significant supplementary demands. Last year, the Eknath Shinde -BJP government had presented its first budget of Rs 5,47,450 crore for the next financial year 2023-24, based on the principle of ‘Panchamrut’.