Maharashtra budget: State is owed ₹1.66 lakh crore in tax, non-tax revenue | Mumbai news

Mumbai: Even as the cash-strapped Maharashtra government faces an estimated debt of ₹9,32,242 crore for the financial year 2025-26, the highest in the state’s history, the amount of money it is owed from tax and non-tax revenue has accumulated to a whopping ₹1.66 lakh crore. That’s over 22% of the state budget.

While presenting the state budget for FY 2025-26 on Monday, finance minister Ajit Pawar announced an amnesty scheme for pending arrears. The government expects tax revenue of around ₹8,000 crore from this scheme, with most of the unrealised tax revenue stemming from tax disputes with central government departments and oil marketing companies.

However, even if the government manages to recover the entire ₹8,000 crore, which is unlikely, it will account for just over 5.5% of the total unrealised revenue from various taxes— ₹1.43 lakh crore. And the amnesty scheme will not apply to non-tax revenue, in which the arrears are the arrears are ₹22,746 crore.

Out of the total ₹1.43 lakh crore the state is owed from various taxes, ₹94,526 crore is from disputed cases that have been pending for several years. This includes ₹66,411 crore from sales and value-added tax (VAT) on motor spirits and lubricants, which has been pending since before the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in 2017.

The second-highest disputed amount, ₹21,519 crore, is from central taxes. The GST Commissionerate has not been able to recover ₹48,534 crore despite there being no disputes over the recovery. The state is owed ₹37,859 crore from central taxes and sales tax/VAT on spirits and lubricants.

An official from the GST commissionerate said tax disputes pending for years at various levels, including in court, will be liable for the amnesty scheme, which is yet to be fine-tuned and notified.

“We have been giving a waiver to companies up to 80% of the outstanding arrears if they pay the remaining 20%. The penalty and interest on it are waived. We could bring down the outstanding from disputed cases to almost half over the last four years. The rest are complex cases remaining after implementing numerous amnesty schemes. Solving them and recovering the amount seems difficult,” the official said.

The outstanding amount is due to differences over taxation, as the companies do not agree with the tax levied on various grounds. “Some cases are of litigation out of our decision to disallow exports and international trade. It would not be right to say that the amount shown as outstanding is fit to be fully recovered,” the official said.

The non-disputed cases will not be liable for the amnesty scheme as the amount involved has already been recovered by the companies from third parties and is liable for payment to the department, the official added.

As for non-tax revenue, out of the ₹22,746 crore worth of arrears, the highest outstanding amount is ₹19,183 crore, which is owed to state government departments such as cooperation, textiles, irrigation, and power. The police and jails department also owes the state money.

“The non-tax revenue is outstanding for various reasons, and the amnesty scheme will not be applicable to it,” said an official from the state finance department. “The outstanding amount from the police and jails departments is due to the non-recovery of challans for traffic violations.”