For the third consecutive year, Maharashtra recorded negative growth in the agriculture sector, shows the State Economic Survey 2015-16 released on Thursday.
The report, however, expects the State’s economy to grow at 8 per cent during the fiscal of 2015-16, with the Industry and Services sectors growing at the rate of 5.9 per cent and 10.8 per cent respectively. The estimated negative growth rate of agriculture sector is 2.7 per cent. The Economic Survey is a precursor to Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar’s budget presentation for the 2016-17 fiscal on Friday.
“Four consecutive years of drought have severely hampered the growth of agriculture sector,” said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday.
“However, the State is expected to register better growth than the country’s overall growth rate. We are hopeful that measures taken will soon give results, and that the farm sector too will see growth again.”
Apart from the negative growth in agriculture, forestry and logging, too, has registered a decline of 3.1 per cent.
As per advance estimates, Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) for 2015-16 at constant (2011-12) prices is expected to be Rs 16,47,045 crore.
Net State Domestic Product (State Income) as per the first revised estimates is Rs 15,72,037 crore, and per capita state income is Rs 1,34,081 during 2014-15.
When in Opposition, the current ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had accused the then Congress- NCP government over its failure to tackle the growing liabilities on the state.
The liabilities (debt stock) of the State comprise accumulated unpaid loans and other liabilities on the government. The debt stock of the state for 2015-16 is expected to increase by 10.1 per cent over the previous year. It is expected to reach Rs 3,33,160 crore which is 16.9 per cent of the GSDP. The limit laid down by the State Finance Commission is 21.9 per cent.
Despite attacking the previous government two years back over the alleged irrigation scam and hiding figures of land irrigated in Maharashtra, the BJP-led state government, too, has failed to release the data in this report. Since 2010-11, the state has not released figures of area under irrigation.
In the Industry sector, the report estimates growth only in areas such as manufacturing and construction. Mining and electricity, water supply, and other utility services have registered less growth compared to last year.
Ironically, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have registered considerable drop in the investment and employment generation categories. The figures up to September 2015 have shown that the sector has lost over 16,000 MSME units since the last fiscal and the number of employed persons in the field has become equal to that of 2008-09. Exports in Maharashtra, too, have registered drops when compared to last fiscal. Out of the total 69 approved Special Economic Zones (SEZ) only 25 have been executed, majority from which are in Pune division.
While the transport facilities to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) have been one of the key agendas of the present government, the survey has estimated expenditure of about Rs 87,627 crore only on building news roads, flyovers and metro routes.
Source : The Hindu
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