Maharashtra government increases VAT on petrol, diesel by Rs 1

Mumbai, Mar 6: Presenting the maiden budget of the 'three-wheeler' Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, Finance Minister Ajit Pawar announced the hike in the Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel by Re 1 per liter, thus, making the people of the state to bear the brunt of costlier fuel.

This is expected to fetch an additional revenue of Rs 1800 crore out of which Rs 1000 crore has been allocated to ‘young and enthusiastic’ Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray showing special favors to this ‘Sena Minister and Yuva Sena leader’.

Finance Minister Ajit Pawar presented the Rs 4.34 lakh crore budget in the Legislative Assembly today announcing Rs 22000 crore for farmers under the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Loan Waiver Scheme. The Finance Minister tried to placate all the stakeholders.

The farmers' loan waiver scheme has now been expanded to include agriculturists with outstanding loans of more than Rs 200,000 and an incentive of Rs 50,000 for those who repay them on time.

“Overall, we have tried to consider every section of the society mainly farmers, youth, and women. The state is witnessing economic slowdown and there are challenges in employment so we have tried to give some concession to the industry by reducing power rates and real estate industry and homebuyers by slashing the stamp duty,” said Pawar.

In view of the rising unemployment, the state government has thought over a job creation scheme for the educated jobless between the age of 21 to 28 besides plans to pay the stipend to these young persons.

With the budgetary provision of Rs 6000 crore the government plans to train 10 lakh youth in five years. The Finance Minister also announced a special law to ensure jobs for locals on priority basis.

The ‘Shiv Bhojan Thali’, CM Uddhav Thackeray’s pet food scheme has bee allocated Rs 150 crore for this year and it will provide food to 100,000 people at Rs 10/- per thali.

Ajit Pawar announced a cut of 1% on stamp duty on all real estate deals for homebuyers in Mumbai, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune and Nagpur for two years.