Maha to grow at 8% in FY16 despite 2.7% agri decline: Survey

Severe drought in parts of Maharashtra cast its shadow on agriculture and allied services sector, which is estimated to decline by 2.7 per cent in 2015-16, the State Economic Survey said today, even as GSDP growth is pegged at 8 per cent.
This compares with a GSDP growth rate of 5.7 per cent during 2014-15.
The 'Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2015-16' was tabled in the state legislature here today, a day ahead of the presentation of budget.
According to the survey, agriculture and allied activities sector is expected to decline by 2.7 per cent, while industry and services sectors are expected to grow by 5.9 per cent and 10.8 per cent, respectively, over the previous fiscal.

Total rainfall in the state during 2015 was deficient, at 59.4 per cent of the national rainfall, the survey said.
Of the 355 tehsils (excluding those in Mumbai city and suburbs), 278 tehsils received deficient rainfall, while 75 tehsils received normal and two tehsils received excess rainfall.

It stated that area under rabi crop is expected to decline by 16 per cent as compared to the previous year due to deficient rains in kharif season 2015.
The survey stated that y-o-y inflation, based on CPI for rural areas, decreased from 4.8 per cent in April 2015 to 2.6 per cent in December 2015, whereas for urban areas it decreased from 4.7 per cent to 3.5 per cent.

Rate of food inflation for the same period increased from 5.7 per cent to 5.9 per cent for rural areas, while it increased from 6.2 per cent to 7.3 per cent for urban areas.
As per budget estimates for 2015-16, revenue deficit stood at Rs 3,757 crore, fiscal deficit at Rs 30,733 crore and debt stock at Rs 3,33,160 crore, it stated.
The survey stated that as on March 31, 2015, aggregate bank deposits and gross credit of scheduled commercial banks in the state were Rs 21.34 lakh crore and Rs 19.76 lakh crore, respectively.
As on March 31, 2015, total savings of 7.2 lakh self help groups (SHGs) was Rs 903.8 crore, and total loan outstanding from about 2 lakh SHGs stood at Rs 1,532.8 crore.

During August 1991 to October 2015, a total of 19,053 industrial proposals with proposed investment of Rs 10,97,337 crore were approved and out of these, 8,497 projects (44.6 per cent) with proposed investment of Rs 2,62,631 crore (23.9 per cent) were commissioned.
The total number of vehicles on road in the state as on January 1, 2016 was 271 lakh, whereas the total number of accidents and persons killed in 2015 were 63,805 and 13,212 respectively, as per the survey.
It stated that the passenger traffic during 2014-15 at domestic and international airports stood at 312.1 lakh and 113.7 lakh, respectively.

During 2014-15, 99.6 per cent schools had drinking water facilities, while 98.6 per cent had girls toilets (functional) and 54.3 per cent were equipped with computers, it added.