Mumbai: In the first budget after its return to power in Maharashtra with a historic mandate, the Mahayuti government, this time led by Devendra Fadnavis, prioritised the state’s fiscal health and capital expenditure, with a special emphasis on infrastructure and industrial growth.
However, the flagship initiative of the Mahayuti—the Ladki Bahin scheme that proved instrumental in the government’s electoral success—did not see an increase in the allocation, as compared with the previous budget. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who holds the finance portfolio, made no mention in the budget about when the state planned to increase the monthly stipend for eligible women under the scheme to Rs 2,100 from the current Rs 1,500.
One of the Mahayuti’s key promises in the run-up to state polls last year was increasing the stipend.
This year, the government allocated Rs 36,000 crore for the Ladki Bahin scheme, down from Rs 46,000 crore in the July 2024 budget. The state government justified the move, saying that the actual expenditure on the scheme from July 2024 was lower than anticipated, at Rs 33,232 crore.
“It’s important to maintain financial discipline in the budget, and that has been considered … When we made estimates for the budget for Ladki Bahin last time, we realised the actual spend was less than our estimates. So, this time, we have based our estimates on the actual spend. And if you notice, it is more than the actual spend of last year,” CM Devendra Fadnavis said, addressing a press conference after the budget speech.
Asked when the government would increase the stipend to Rs 2,100, the CM said that since the promise was in their manifesto, the government would make it happen when the time was right. The announcement, he said, was planned to be done within five years of the promise.
The budget has focused mainly on developing ports, airports, and metro lines, besides building a memorial for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. With the corporation elections scheduled for later this year, the government has also stressed developing the MMR (Mumbai Metropolitan Region) as the growth hub.
In Gadchiroli, where CM Devendra Fadnavis is the guardian minister, the government wanted to create a steel hub, Pawar said.
“This budget includes significant provisions for the development of industries, infrastructure, agriculture and allied sectors, as well as social (sector) and other areas,” Pawar said in his budget speech.
Pawar further said that the government devised a seven-point, 100-day plan focusing on the development of websites, ease of living, cleanliness, resolution of public grievances, improvement of office facilities, promotion of investments, and visits to regional offices.
The Opposition, however, slammed the budget, terming it as “a budget, where none of the promises [made] during the elections [were] fulfilled.”
“This is a bogus budget. There is no mention of Rs 2,100 for Ladki Bahin, the farm loan waiver for farmers. There is nothing for common people, but (everything is) for contractors, especially the number of projects the government will take up in Mumbai,” said former CM Uddhav Thackeray. “This is no development budget, but taking Maharashtra to a pit. The downfall of Maharashtra has already begun.”
According to the economic survey presented in the budget session last week, Maharashtra’s economy will likely grow to 7.3%, ahead of the country’s average growth of 6.5%.
Fiscal health
Despite the volley of schemes and incentives rolled out last year in the run-up to the state assembly polls, the Maharashtra government has stayed within the norms for fiscal discipline, managing to keep its fiscal deficit and debt under recommended levels.
Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, in his budget, has estimated a fiscal deficit of 2.76 percent of the state’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
The 15th Finance Commission has recommended a fiscal deficit limit of three percent between 2023 and 2026 for states.
Speaking to reporters, CM Fadnavis praised Pawar for ensuring the state’s fiscal well-being.
“Committed expenditure and revenue expenditure increased exponentially due to various schemes, but the finance minister did not let the budget lose its balance. The estimate was that the fiscal deficit would go to five percent and Maharashtra, for the first time, would go into fiscal indiscipline,” Fadnavis said.
For the ongoing fiscal year, the state government budgeted for a fiscal deficit, amounting to 2.59 percent of the state Gross Domestic State Product (GSDP).
The previous Mahayuti government had faced ample questions about running the state into fiscal indiscipline, with the then Eknath Shinde-led government introducing a slew of incentives and subsidies in the run-up to the assembly elections in November last year. Those included its flagship Ladki Bahin scheme, under which women aged 21 to 65, with an annual family income of less than Rs 2.5 lakh, get Rs 1,500/month.
Other schemes introduced in the budget include free higher education for girls from the economically weaker sections and backward classes, three free-of-cost gas cylinders for eligible households, financial assistance for cotton, soybean and onion farmers, free electricity for farmers through solar pumps, and an apprenticeship scheme for the youth, expected to cost the state Rs 10,000 crore a year.
The incentives pushed up the state’s estimated revenue expenditure. Most of the amount spent on the schemes introduced in the budget is counted under revenue expenditure as they involve subsidies.
Revenue expenditure—the amount spent for the normal functioning of government departments—forms a bulk of the expenditure incurred by any government. It broadly includes interest payments on loans, secondly, salaries-pensions, and lastly, subsidies.
The previous Mahayuti government budgeted a revenue expenditure of Rs 5.19 lakh crore for 2024-25, revised to Rs 5.62 lakh crore this time. The move has raised the fiscal deficit estimated for 2024-25 to 2.9 percent, which remained under the recommended guidelines.
Similarly, the debt to GSDP ratio estimated for 2025-26 is 18.77 percent, which remained within the recommended limit of under 25 percent.
“There are only two states where the debt to GSDP ratio is under 20 percent. One is Maharashtra, and the other is Gujarat. The rest are above 20 percent, and some are beyond 25 percent,” Pawar said, speaking to reporters after the budget.
To achieve this fiscal discipline, the state government has not only pruned its expenditure on some schemes, such as its flagship Ladki Bahin scheme, as compared to the previous budget, based on the actual expenditure, but it has also planned to boost the tax revenue of Maharashtra.
Pawar has estimated the tax revenue would increase to Rs 3.87 lakh crore for the 2025-26 fiscal compared to the revised estimate of Rs 3.67 lakh crore for the ongoing fiscal.
For this, the finance minister has proposed to increase the motor vehicle tax by one percent and levy a motor vehicle tax of six percent on electric vehicles priced above Rs 30 lakh, levy a seven percent motor vehicle tax on light goods vehicles carrying goods up to 7,500 kg, and a seven percent motor vehicle tax on all vehicles used for construction.
Industries and infrastructure
The budget focused on developing Maharashtra as an industrial- and infrastructure-heavy state. The government will soon announce the 2025 Industrial Policy, which will attract investments worth Rs 40 lakh crore and create 50 lakh jobs over its five-year period.
For turning Gadchiroli into a steel hub, an Rs 21,830 crore investment agreement, which will likely generate 7,500 jobs, came to fruition at the World Economic Forum.
Besides, the land acquisition process for the Bengaluru-Mumbai Industrial Corridor is underway.
The government is also investing in the Vadhavan Port in Palghar district, where it will have a share of 26% of Rs 76,220 crore.
The government will also build the third airport for Mumbai and the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train station near the Vadhavan Port, which connects to the Samruddhi Mahamarg.
After the Mumbai-Pune and Mumbai-Nagpur expressways, the government has started the land acquisition process for the Shaktipeeth Highway from Nagpur-Goa. The expressway, covering a length of 760 km and costing Rs 86,300 crore, would stretch from Pavnar in the Wardha district to Patradevi in the Sindhudurg district.
Work on metro routes covering a distance of 143.57 km is underway across Mumbai, Nagpur, and Pune. This year, 64.4 km of metro lines will become operational in Mumbai and Pune and 237.5 km over the next five years, Pawar said.
The metro line project connecting Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai to Navi Mumbai International Airport will commence soon.
The government has also approved Rs 1,367 crore-worth development works for Shirdi Airport. In 2021, Shirdi Airport received the status of a major airport. The facility for night landing will also start soon.
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MMR region
With the crucial corporation polls in sight, the budget’s special focus was on developing the Mumbai region as a growth hub, with international-level business centres established at seven locations, such as Bandra-Kurla Complex, Kurla-Worli, Wadala, Goregaon, Navi Mumbai, Kharghar, and Virar-Boisar.
Five projects worth Rs 64,783 crore—Versova to Madh Creek Bridge, Versova to Bhayander Coastal Road, and the Underground Road network from Mulund to Goregaon, Thane to Borivali, and Orange Gate to Marine Drive to streamline traffic in the Mumbai suburbs—are all on the cards.
The elevated connector road between Sewri and Worli, with an estimated cost of Rs 1,051 crore, is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2026.
The first phase of a much-awaited Navi Mumbai airport is almost complete, and the government says that domestic operations will commence in April 2025.
Soon, there will also be a policy to provide financial incentives for modern, well-equipped boats to ensure safe travel from the Gateway of India, Mumbai, to Mandwa and Elephanta.
“The objective is to increase the size of the economy of Mumbai Metropolitan Region from the current $140 billion to $300 billion by 2030, and to $1.5 trillion by 2047,” said Pawar
Besides, a plan is floating around to create an elevated route from Thane to Navi Mumbai International Airport, which will conveniently connect Thane, Dombivli, Kalyan, and other important cities to the international airport.
Other features
The government also announced that it planned to erect a memorial for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Agra, where he was held captive and planned his great escape. For this project, Maharashtra will speak with the government of Uttar Pradesh, Pawar said.
Not just in Uttar Pradesh, the government said that it planned to build a memorial at Panipat in Haryana, as well, “as a symbol of the bravery of the millions of Marathas who sacrificed in the battle of Panipat for Swarajya.”
Pawar said a Shivsrushti project is under implementation in four phases at Ambegaon in Pune to introduce future generations to the inspiring legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. With the project’s two phases complete, the state government will provide an additional Rs 50 crore to expedite the remaining work.
Besides, the government has announced ‘housing for all’ in the next five years under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. The state government will increase the subsidy for this scheme by Rs 50,000.
The government, which did not increase allocation for the Ladki Bahin scheme, claimed that nearly 2.2 million women have already achieved the status of ‘Lakhpati Didi under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission’. “The goal for 2025-26 is to enable an additional 2.4 million women to become Lakhpati Didis,” Pawar said.
The Ladki Bahin scheme, announced by Eknath Shinde in 2023, which provides financial assistance to girls born in families with yellow and orange ration cards up to Rs 1 lakh till they turn 18 years old, has continued. The budget set aside a Rs 50 crore provision for it.
With Marathi recently granted the status of a classical language, the Maharashtra government plans to celebrate 3-9 October as the Classical Marathi Language week.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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