Union Budget to foster growth and aid Meghalaya in becoming 10 billion USD economy: Govt

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaFebruary 1, 2025

Meghalaya government on Saturday thanked the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for presenting a development-oriented budget laying the path for Viksit Bharat by focusing on 10 broad areas and leveraging four engines of growth i.e Agriculture, MSMEs, Investments and Exports.

The ten broad areas include – Spurring Agricultural Growth and Productivity; Building Rural Prosperity and Resilience; Taking Everyone Together on an Inclusive Growth path; Boosting Manufacturing and Furthering Make in India; Supporting MSMEs; Enabling Employment-led Development; Investing in people, economy and innovation;  Securing Energy Supplies;  Promoting Exports; and Nurturing Innovation.

“The initiatives announced in today’s budget will foster growth and aid in realising our  CM’s vision of doubling the GSDP and becoming a 10 billion USD economy,” the state government said in a statement.

It said PM Dhan Dhanya Krishi Yojana announced in this budget for farmers will cover 100 districts with low productivity, moderate crop intensity and below-average banking parameters. This is expected to help low agricultural productivity districts in our State. In addition, the KCC loan limit will be increased to ₹5 lakh from the current limit of Rs 3 lakh. This will benefit the large number of KCC beneficiaries in our State.

The Union Government will launch a modified Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN) scheme to connect 120 destinations. Presenting the Union Budget 2025-26, the Union Finance Minister said the modified scheme will help about four crore additional passengers in the next 10 years. The scheme will also support helipads and smaller airports in hilly and aspirational Districts across the country. This will improve connectivity in hilly States like Meghalaya.

The Union Government will facilitate setting up of daycare cancer centres in all district hospitals over the next three years and 200 of these will be established in 2025-26 and all the districts will be covered in the next three years.

“The increased allocations for Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 along with enhancement in the cost norms for nutritional support will help us address the challenges of malnourishment and stunting. Along with ECD Mission of Meghalaya this will ensure a better future for the children,” the state government said.

“About 50 tourist destination sites will be developed in the country in partnership with the States. The States will provide land for key infrastructure needed. This will complement the Meghalaya’s investments and efforts in developing world class tourist infrastructure and position our State as a global tourism destination,” it said while adding that the increase in credit guarantee cover for MSMEs – from Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore for micro and small units, from Rs 10 crore to Rs 20 crore for start-ups will provide stimulus for the industrial growth. This access to credit along with the incentives offered by Meghalaya Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy will help our youth and entrepreneurs.

The finance minister also highlighted that each infrastructure-related ministry will come up with a 3-year pipeline of projects that can be implemented in public private partnership (PPP) mode. States will also be encouraged to do so and can seek support from the IIPDF (India Infrastructure Project Development Fund) scheme to prepare PPP proposals. The State will explore the avenues to utilize this fund for accelerating the infrastructure development and employment creation.

The continuation of Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment with an outlay of Rs. 1.5 lakh crore in this budget will further accelerate the infrastructure development in our State. In 2023-24, we have utilized more than Rs 1300 crore under this scheme and in 2024-25 the utilization is expected to be more than Rs 2,000 crores

Measures were also announced to strengthen the cooperative sector. The Union Government would extend support to the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) to bolster its lending operations. This move is expected to enhance financial assistance within the cooperative ecosystem, providing much needed capital to fuel growth and development.

Extension of broadband connectivity to all government secondary and primary schools ensures better access to digital learning resource. This initiative will further add to the State Government’s interventions in providing e-learning resources in Meghalaya and will not only improve educational outcomes but also enhance employability of our students.

The total share of tax devolution to Meghalaya has increased from Rs 9566.09 crore to Rs 9870.40 crore as per the RE 2024-25 announced by the Union Government. The B.E for 2025-26 is Rs 10910.14 crore, an increase of Rs 1039.74 crore from the RE 2024-25.