MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government, tabling its fourth budget a year before state polls, has continued its focus on the distressed farm and social sector. But worry lines are growing about the state’s ballooning debt, set to hit Rs 4.6 lakh crore, a rise of almost Rs 56,000 crore over last year and almost three times the debt a decade ago. The government, though, says the debt is within fiscal limits and so has not cut spending. The plan expenditure is estimated at Rs 95,000 crore, which is 23% higher than last year’s.The state’s revenue deficit is expected to hit Rs 15,374 crore, Rs 891 crore higher than last year. The fiscal deficit is Rs 4,384 crore higher. Revenue expenditure is set to rise to Rs 3 lakh crore from Rs 2.7 lakh crore last year.The budget has proposed no new taxes on account of GST, though it faces large payouts for the farm loan waiver (Rs 10,000 crore), the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations (Rs 10,000 crore) and compensation due to municipal bodies after scrapping local body tax (LBT), at Rs 13,000 crore.Despite the financial strain, the budget allocated Rs 450 crore to statues: Rs 300 crore for the Shivaji Memorial and Rs 150 crore for the Ambedkar Memorial.On the income front, the state expects a rise from last year. Revenue receipts are projected at Rs 2.85 lakh crore, higher than Rs 2.57 lakh crore last year.“The debt is within fiscal limits. We have not had to cut down on spending for infrastructure or development,” said state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar.The debt to GSDP ratio is 16.5%, which is lower than the recommended 22.5% limit set by the 14th Finance Commission.In the state’s plan expenditure, the highest allocation of Rs 35,373 crore is to social and community services, followed by the agriculture and allied services sector, which gets Rs 18,112 crore. Also, the state has allocated Rs 37,476 crore to capital expenditure in the budget, which is Rs 3,862 crore higher than last year’s allocation. This is the expenditure undertaken to create and maintain assets.The state is banking GST collections to shore up its revenues, with Maharashtra reporting the highest collections in the country. In 2017-18, the state also received Rs 2,100 crore more than expected from stamp and registration fees, and Rs 1,012 crore more than estimated as grant-in-aid from the Centre. But what it got from customs duty and state and central excise duty was less than expected.On the expenditure front, in 2017-18, the state spent Rs 1,907 crore less than budgeted for education and Rs 1,479 crore less than budgeted for relief from natural calamities.The budget has announced allocations for the farm and irrigation sector, apart from the loan waiver. This includes Rs 8,233 crore for the water resources department and Rs 1,500 crore for its flagship water conservation project, Jalyukta Shivar. Also, Rs 750 crore is for providing electric connections to agricultural pumps and Rs 922 crore for food security to farmers below the poverty line. The social justice and tribal welfare department has also received large allocations.Infrastructure spending is highest in road works, with an allocation of Rs 10,828 crore. The home department will receive an allocation of Rs 13,385 crore for the police force. Urban schemes, including the Amrut Mission and the Smart City Mission , will receive Rs 2,310 crore and Rs 1,316 crore.The budget has proposed stronger measures for profession tax collection. Limited liability partnership entities will now be liable to pay profession tax. Recovery provisions under GST will be applicable to profession tax and the responsibility to collect tax at source will vest with organizations. On VAT, it has proposed non-recovery of tax of up to Rs 500 crore.