In his letter sent recently to economists, chambers of commerce, MPs, legislators, IAS and IPS officers, district collectors and police superintendents, Mungantiwar says Maharashtra had a Rs3,00,477 crore debt burden and paid around Rs23,805 crore towards interest servicing annually.
To ensure participative governance, brainstorm on methods to increase revenues and tackle Maharashtra's huge debt burden, finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has written to economists, industry bodies, chief ministers and chief secretaries of all states, and elected representatives and officials from Maharashtra seeking ideas.
Mungantiwar is due to present the first budget of the BJP-Shiv Sena state government in March.
In his letter sent recently to economists, chambers of commerce, MPs, legislators, IAS and IPS officers, district collectors and police superintendents, Mungantiwar says Maharashtra had a Rs3,00,477 crore debt burden and paid around Rs23,805 crore towards interest servicing annually.
He also writes about wanting to draw on their skill and experience in formulating the budget and has asked for suggestions to increase the state's revenue and curb its expenditure or to launch innovative schemes.
"Maharashtra has the potential to be the most progressive and developed (state) not just in India but also Asia," said Mungantiwar, adding that farmers, workers, traders, industrialists in the state worked hard.
"We will have to try and ensure that Maharashtra become an ideal for other states in India in five years based on the hard work put in by these people," he added, stressing that all must come together for the development of the state regardless of factors like caste, creed and party affiliations.
Mungantiwar, through the letter, has also sought information from chief ministers about the innovative schemes formulated by their respective states and has asked for suggestions to boost the development process. These inputs will be useful in chalking out the budget, he said.
The state is also likely to scrap the local body tax (LBT) from the new financial year, replacing it with a surcharge on value added tax (VAT). LBT had replaced octroi in all municipal corporations in Maharashtra except Mumbai.
Maharashtra's debt burden has increased because of new loans taken periodically, inflation and major deviations, such as increase in non-plan expenditure like dearness allowance, and the various welfare packages announced for farmers affected by natural disasters.
The fall in oil and motor spirit prices is also expected to affect VAT collections as it is collected on percentage basis.
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