Mumbai: Refuting all allegations levelled by opposition leaders, state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has claimed that there is no need to worry about the state economy as it is on the right track. However, he expressed concern over decrease in capital expenditure up to 9.8 per cent of the Rs 3.39 lakh crore revenue expenditure. Mr Mungantiwar ascertained that the BJP-led government had cut down on unnecessary revenue expenditure as compared to the Congress-NCP government.

While replying to budget discussions in the Legislative Assembly, he said, “Under the earlier government, they took an overdraft from the RBI and the debt burden reached 25.3 per cent to the GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product). However, the BJP-led government has taken various steps and the debt burden is now 16.3 % to the GSDP although the government has raised the debt of Rs 20k crore for the farm loan waiver.”

Mr Mungantiwar said, “The government reduced expenses on non-productive things. Salary, pension and interest component percentage to the revenue expenditure was 64.72 per cent but after certain steps, it has reduced up to 54.87 per cent.”

The state finance minister refuted allegations about the Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue and memorial and gave all details of the last 15 to 20 years. He alleged that the earlier government neither took such decisions nor disbursed funds for other memorials, however the BJP-led government had got all the necessary permissions from the central government and the work would commence soon. Mr Mungantiwar refuted the possibility of reducing the height of the Shivaji Maharaj statue and made it clear that the memorial would be the tallest in the world.