Mumbai, Feb. 24 -- With populist schemes continuing to strain Maharashtra's finances, no new schemes or projects are likely to be announced in the state budget for 2026-27 which will be presented by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on March 6, officials familiar with the matter told Hindustan Times. "The state's finances are in bad shape due to the Ladki Bahin Yojana and other populist schemes alongside a shortfall in revenue," a senior finance department official told HT, requesting not to be identified. "Though the chief minister has handled the finance department earlier, it will not be easy for him to present the budget in the absence of Ajit Pawar." Pawar, former Nationalist Congress Party chief and deputy chief minister, was killed in a plane crash in Baramati on January 28. Fadnavis subsequently took charge of the finance department. While interacting with reporters on Sunday, he said he would not hesitate to take some strict steps in the upcoming budget to retain fiscal discipline. "We are a developing economy, and managing the finances requires a careful balance between development spending, debt and liabilities. Though there is some stress, we are in a position where there will be no need to cut ongoing schemes," Fadnavis said. Maharashtra entered the financial year (FY) 2025-26 with its debt stock still looking contained on paper. The FY2025-26 budget pegged the outstanding debt at 18.4% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), broadly flat from the revised estimate for 2024-25, keeping the state outside the high-debt bracket on a standard cross-state comparison. It also budgeted a fiscal deficit of 2.8% of GSDP, at Rs.1.36 lakh crore. The strain on the state's finances, however, showed up in flow numbers. For FY 2025-26, the Fadnavis-led government budgeted a revenue deficit of 0.9% of GSDP, after it steadily widened from 0.1% in 2022-23 to 0.3% in 2023-24 and a revised 0.6% in 2024-25. This indicated that borrowings were increasingly being used to fund routine expenditure. The budget also pencilled in only 5% growth in revenue receipts, and left little cushion if GST-linked inflows or cyclical heads like stamp duty and excise fell short. Till February 15, 2026, collection from stamp duty and registration was Rs.50,000 crore, against the annual target of Rs.63,500 crore, while excise duty collection till December 31, 2025 was Rs.20,239 crore against the annual target of Rs.32,575 crore, data from the finance department showed. Officials said singled out the Ladki Bahin Yojana for placing a severe strain on the state's finances. When the scheme was launched in August 2024, the annual payout for 24.5 million beneficiaries was Rs.44,000 crore, which was more than 8% of the state's tax revenue; the payout has now dropped to Rs.40,500 crore after beneficiaries were pruned to 22.5 million. Sources in the finance department said it has already initiated cuts in spending up to 30% of the budget outlay; it has also been directed to release the budgeted amount on need-based priority. As a result, overall spending has reached only 49.9% of the budgeted outlay as on Friday (see box for breakup). "With total revenue generation for the fiscal estimated at Rs.5.60 lakh crore, the budget is likely to be cut by over 15%," the senior finance department official quoted earlier said. A second official from the department pointed out two major additions in revenue expenditure in the coming years - implementation of farm loan waiver scheme June 2026 onwards, which would cost more than Rs.25,000 crore, and implementation of the Eight Pay Commission, which would cost Rs.20,000 crore annually. Niraj Hatekar, former head of the economics department at the University of Mumbai, said the government must set a precedent in the upcoming budget by doing away with schemes like the Ladki Bahin Yojana and free power for operating agricultural pumps. "The state is struggling with the revenue and fiscal deficit, which have mounted because of the whopping supplementary demands presented after the budget. Fiscal deficit has crossed 4% of the state GDP," Hatekar said. Minister of state for finance Ashish Jaiswal said the state had brought in fiscal discipline strategically by prioritising schemes and refraining from launching new ones. "We have increased investment and, with the natural growth of the economy, ensured that we remain competitive," Jaiswal said....