Shillong, Mar 5: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday tabled a Rs 1,970 crore deficit budget for 2025-26, which is around 2.96 percent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

Sangma also presented the climate budget for 2025-26 at Rs 5,421 crore and gender budget at Rs 6,219 crore.

The total receipts is at Rs 30,415 crore, of which the revenue receipts are estimated at Rs 25,591 crore and capital receipts at Rs 4,824 crore, Sangma said in his budget speech.

Excluding borrowings of Rs 4,788 crore, the total receipts are estimated to be at Rs 25,627 crore, he said adding that the total expenditure is estimated at Rs 30,003 crore, of which the revenue expenditure is estimated at Rs 20,556 crore and capital expenditure at Rs 9,447 crore.

According to the chief minister who holds charge of the Finance department, the estimated total expenditure is Rs 27,597 crore excluding repayment of loans of Rs 2,406 crore.

He said the interest payments for 2025-26 are estimated at Rs 1,347 crore and pension payments at Rs 1,824 crore.

“I am, therefore, presenting the budget for 2025-26 with a fiscal deficit of Rs 1,970 crore, which is around 2.96 percent of the GSDP,. I am delighted to highlight that the fiscal deficit has been maintained below the permissible limit of 3.5%” Sangma said.

“Along with the main budget document I am presenting the Climate, Youth, Gender and SDG Budgets The size of the climate budget for 2025-26 is Rs 5,421 crore, an increase of 20% over 2024-25; youth budget stands at Rs 3,329 crore, an increase of 16.6%, gender budget stands at Rs 6,219 crore, an increase of 25%,” he added.

Targeting to make Meghalaya a developed state by 2032, Sangma said, “This budget will provide the framework for growth, job creation and improving citizen wellbeing.”

The CM said in 2023, when the MDA 2.0 government was formed, we announced the target of making Meghalaya a $ 10 billion economy and doubling the state’s GDP from the then Rs 42,697 crore to Rs 85,000 crore by 2028.

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation approved GSDP numbers for 2023-24 is Rs 53,057 crore and the projected GSD for 2025-26 is at an impressive Rs 66,647 crore.

“The annual growth rate for the period 2023-26 stands at 12.7% and we are certain to achieve our target for 2028,” he said adding that the total estimated transfers from the Centre to Meghalaya are expected to rise to Rs 20,568 crore in 2025-26, up from revised estimates of Rs 19,242 crore in the current year.

“This growth is largely driven by India’s robust economic performance. Notably, the share of central taxes is projected to increase by 10.5% to Rs 10,910 crore in 2025-26, up from Rs 9,870 crore in the current year,” the CM said while thanking the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for steering the country’s growth over the last decade.

Sangma informed that his government has made strong efforts to improve tax and non-tax revenues and said, “State’s own tax revenue has witnessed a significant surge, reaching Rs 4,041 crore in the current year, marking almost a 3-fold increase from Rs 1,450 crore in 2017-18. I am projecting the state’s own tax revenue to reach Rs 4,226 crore in 2025-26, comprising of GST of Rs 2,094 crore, taxes on sales and trade of Rs 1,180 crore and excise of Rs 682 crore.”

He said that State’s own non-tax revenue collection has been unpredictable in the recent past due to various judgments of courts and long drawn transition of scientific mining. However, the outlook is optimistic with 3 mining licenses being awarded and 20 more at different stages of approval.

“I am projecting a non-tax revenue of Rs 797 crore in 2025-26,” he said adding “I estimate the total expenditure for 2025-26 to be Rs 30,003 crore given the increased transfers from the Centre and projected state receipts. This is a 3-fold increase in expenditure over the 8-year period, which is one of the highest growth rates in the country – expenditure in 2017-18 was only Rs 9,858 crore; country’s expenditure during the same period has increased by 2-3 times.”

“The total expenditures of Rs 30,003 crore comprises of Rs 23,353 crore state expenditure and Rs 6,650 crore CSS expenditure. Total revenue expenditure for the year is Rs 20,556 crore and capital expenditure is Rs 9,447 crore. Notably, the projected capital expenditure is a seven-fold increase from 2017-18 levels of Rs 1,435 crore,” he stated.

Deliberating on the Meghalaya Mission 10 – the ten opportunities and ten commitments, Sangma said , “To achieve our GSDP target, we need substantial private sector investments amount to at least $1 billion, or approximately Rs 8,500 crore.”

“Every Meghalayan and every region of our beautiful state should reap the benefits of higher economic growth. As Abraham Lincoln said ‘commitment is what transforms a promise into reality’. Our government’s ten commitments reflect this dedication, and we will achieve these by 2032 when the state celebrates its diamond jubilee,” he added.

Meanwhile, the chief minister has allocated Rs 3,654 crore to the education department, including Rs 2,770 crore from the state resources, out of which Rs 1,403 crore is for grant-in-aids salaries and Rs 170 crore is for taking up capital works.

The overall allocation for the public works department (PWD) is Rs 2,873 crore, health and family welfare department at Rs 2,176 crore, power department at Rs 1,088 crore, PHE at Rs 866 crore and agriculture and farmers welfare at Rs 618 crore.

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