Fadnavis presents Shinde govt's 1st Budget in Maharashtra Assembly

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the state Finance Minister, on Thursday presented the Eknath Shinde-led government's first Budget for the year 2023-24 in the state Assembly. Fadnavis started reading out the budgetary allocations in the Lower House of the state legislature at 2 pm.

He read out the Budgetary provisions from an iPad instead of a conventional paper document. This is for the first time that Fadnavis presented the state Budget as he holds the finance portfolio.

During Fadnavis's tenure as the chief minister between 2014-19, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sudhir Mungantiwar was the finance minister. The Shinde-led government, in which his faction of the Shiv Sena and the BJP share power, was formed in June 2022.

During the Budget presentation, Fadnavis said the outlay for farmers has been increased by Rs 6,900 crore and the coverage of the Mahatma Phule Jan Arogya scheme, a health insurance scheme of the government, has been raised from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.