Shillong, Feb 28: Chief minister Conrad K Sangma has said his government would present a “pro-people” annual budget 2025-26 in the 10-day assembly session starting Friday.
“It has to be pro-people,” Sangma told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The chief minister, who holds the finance portfolio, will present the budget in the assembly on March 5.
Citing difference between state and union budgets, he said the state budget does not have much scope for tax introduction as taxes are more or less central subjects.
“Ours is mostly an expenditure-related budget. We have only control on what we spend on,” he said.
“Major revenue related decisions are made by the central government in terms of taxes. Direct taxes, of course, are decided by the GST Council but ours is mostly related to expenditure related measures,” he said.
The chief minster also claimed improvement in overall performance of the state in terms of implementation of the different central government schemes.
“Therefore, we are getting additional funds which is why we have to increase the corpus fund as we are getting money but the provision in the budget,” he added.