Meghalaya: State budget session begins today, will continue for ten working days

CORRESPONDENT

Shillong: The budget session of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly will commence on Friday and will continue for ten working days until March 13, with Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma scheduled to present the state budget on March 5. The session will allocate three days to Private Members’ Business, allowing legislators to introduce bills and raise issues, while seven days will be reserved for Government Business, focusing on policy discussions, legislative matters, and financial deliberations.

The state Cabinet has approved six amendment bills, which will be introduced during the session. These include the Meghalaya State Investment Promotion and Facilitation Bill 2025, the Meghalaya Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, the Meghalaya Goods and Services Tax Amendment Bill 2025, the Water Prevention and Control of Pollution Amendment Act, the Meghalaya Police Act, and the Meghalaya Registration of Birth and Death Amendment Rules.

Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma confirmed that the Meghalaya State Investment Promotion and Facilitation Bill 2025 has been amended and will be tabled for discussion. “The government had amended the Meghalaya State Investment Promotion and Facilitation Bill 2025, and the same will be introduced during the Assembly session,” he said.

Regarding amendments to the Meghalaya Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, Sangma stated, “Again, this was brought up earlier, where during the period of the 15th Finance Commission, the deficit was allowed to be brought up to 3.5%. This is throughout the country as per the Government of India and Reserve Bank norms.”

On the augmentation of the Corpus Fund, the Chief Minister explained, “We had increased the Corpus Fund, which was at 500 crores, to ?1005 crores, and this is simply because the budget provisions in the Corpus Fund were limited, so the provisions had to be increased. The cash is available with us, but in order for us to spend it, we need the provision in the budget. So, therefore, this is being created because we have received additional funds from taxes, from different funds coming in from the CSS, and so on and so forth.”

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