Sawant to present 7th consecutive Goa budget on March 6

Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant will present the financial statement for 2026-2027 on the first day of the budget session of the Goa legislative assembly on March 6, he told TOI.

Sawant, who also holds the finance portfolio, will present the budget for the seventh consecutive time since 2020.

This is likely to be the last full-fledged budget before the assembly elections in 2027.After the budget is presented, three days are likely to be allocated for its discussion and 10 days would be kept for ministers to present the demands of their respective departments. Sawant will pass the full-fledged budget during the session.Over the past couple of years, the CM took a vote on account, and the full-fledged budget was passed during the monsoon session of the assembly.But this time, state govt has decided to pass the full-fledged budget during this session so that the opposition gets less time to raise critical issues ahead of the elections.During the 14-day budget session, Sawant will table the ‘action taken’ report on the previous budget.MLAs will be able to raise starred and unstarred questions related to various departments during the session. They can also seek assurances from govt through private members’ resolutions.

Members will be allowed to raise matters of urgent public importance during zero hour. The session is expected to give the opposition more time to raise issues.The last assembly session held in Jan had only six sittings, which drew strong criticism. Opposition MLAs were unhappy with the short duration of recent sessions, stating that they were unable to raise issues of public importance. They also demanded detailed discussions on pressing matters, including the Birch fire tragedy, in which 25 people died.The session, which starts on March 6, will continue till March 27 with 14 days of sittings. The House will not meet on March 19 due to the Gudi Padwa and on March 26 on account of Ram Navami.