The Maharashtra Cabinet today sanctioned a proposal to allow the devolution of revenue collected through cess levies and stamp duty to the respective Zilla Parishads, instead of making budgetary provisions for the same. The Cabinet also agreed in principle to disinvest the government stake in the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) and appoint an international agency to facilitate the same.
Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told reporters: "Till now the entire revenue collections were routed to the state government from the Zilla Parishads first and subsequently, the annual budget made a provision for devolutions to the respective Zilla Parishads resulting in procedural delays. Our decision is aimed at rectifying this delay."
Currently, Rs 1,600 crore in devolution-accumulated arrears are owed to Zilla Parishads in the wake of an average of Rs 80 to Rs 100 crore remaining pending annually. The mechanism for the new system will be worked out jointly by the Maharashtra revenue and finance departments.
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On the tourism front, deputy chief minister Chaggan Bhujbal said: "We are seriously considering how best to exploit the tourism potential in the state with a budgeted provision of Rs 13 crore, of which Rs 2 crore is available for promotional activities. This is in contrast to Kerala that has Rs 80 crore allocated for tourism, of which Rs 40 crore is spent on promotions."
The Cabinet decided to set up a committee of secretaries under chief secretary V Ranganathan to give final touches to a draft tourism policy, currently awaiting the government's sanction.
Bhujbal said: "We have decided to avail of professional consultants to work upon the development potential of important tourist spots like Matheran and Mahabaleshwar. The draft policy also suggests making MTDC a statutory corporation."
Bhujbal said the comprehensive policy sought to regulate the standards of one and two star hotels, amusement parks and other tourism-related services, apart from five star facilities.
The Cabinet has also approved a proposal to reduce the consideration to milk producers in the state, whose produce is purchased by the state-run Aarey Dairy. The state government suffers an annual loss of Rs 250 crore and has an accumulated loss of Rs 2,200 crore on account of its committed expenditure towards the co-operative dairy sector.
Deshmukh said: "It has come to our notice that the fat content (on the basis of which payments are made) recorded at the Zilla Parishad levels by milk co-operatives ranges between 3.5 to 3.7 per cent. However, when this milk reaches the Aarey facility at Worli in Mumbai city, the recorded fat content is in excess of 4.2 per cent. Obviously, this distortion is taking place between the Zilla Parishad level and Mumbai, and the benefit of this high fat content is not given to the milk producers but intermediate agents."
The chief minsiter has ordered an enquiry to establish the reasons for the varying fat content in milk received by Aarey.