Telangana Finance Minister Etela Rajender on Monday presented a tax-free, revenue surplus, welfare-oriented budget for 2017-18 in the state assembly.
The minister proposed Rs. 1,49,646 crore expenditure—an increase of 14.75 per cent from the previous year. The thrust of the budget was the focus on revival of rural economy, welfare of weaker sections, uplifting of sections engaged in traditional occupations and boosting of irrigation and agriculture sectors.
With so many projects in the offing, irrigation got top priority with Rs. 25,000 crore earmarked for the sector.
The total expenditure outlay for 2017-18 has been pegged at Rs 1.49 lakh crore, of which, the committed expenditure is Rs. 61,607 crore while the expenditure on schemes is estimated at Rs. 88,038 crore, the finance minister said. The revenue surplus is estimated at Rs. 4,571 crore.
Another highlight of the budget was the allocation of funds for the welfare of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in proportion to their population. Rs. 14,375 crore and Rs. 8,165 crore have been allotted to the Special Development Funds for SCs and STs respectively. An allocation of Rs 5,070 crore has been made for the welfare of Backward Classes, another focus area of the TRS government.
Seeking to balance welfare measures with development initiatives, the minister earmarked Rs.5,943 crore for agriculture sector and Rs. 4,000 crore towards the third and final installment of farm loan waivers.
The budget indicated a fiscal deficit of Rs. 26,096.31 crore which is 3.48 per cent of the estimated GSDP and a revenue surplus of Rs. 4,571.30 crore.
"An amount of Rs. 1,49,646 crore is proposed as total expenditure consisting of an estimated committed expenditure of Rs. 61,607.20 crore and an expenditure of Rs. 88,038.80 crore under Pragati Paddu or expenditure on schemes," said the minister.
Committed expenditure, which is the new word for revenue, consists of payment of salaries and pensions to government employees, maintenance expenditure and interest payments. The leftover resources would be spent on schemes, another word for capital.
Rajender said demonetisation had its bearing on the budget, as it adversely affected the revenue collections in the current year. He, however, noted that the state had an impressive growth of 19.61 per cent despite demonetisation.
The finance minister announced that under the Kalyana Lakshmi/Shaadi Mubarak schemes, the financial assistance for marriage of girls belonging to poor families would be increased from Rs. 51,000 to Rs. 75,116.
The budget also allocated Rs. 12,705 crore for education, Rs. 5,976 crore for health, Rs. 5,033 crore for road development, Rs. 5,599 crore for urban development and Rs. 14,723 crore for the panchayati raj. Mission Bhagiratha, the ambitious scheme to provide piped drinking water to every household, got Rs. 3,000 crore.
While the budget presentation went off peacefully, the assembly session started off on a slightly provocative note, with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announcing that his government would soon enact a `prove or perish' law. Under this law, “Anyone who levels allegations have to show evidence to prove accusations. If there is no evidence, they will be prosecuted. We are preparing a law that will facilitate legal action against anyone levelling baseless allegations against the government,” the chief minister said.
The Opposition parties had created a ruckus after the Governor's speech before the session began. An exasperated chief minister challenged them saying, “If anybody points out one word or one sentence that is not correct or a lie, I am ready to resign.”
He then said none of the projects the government was working on was for personal benefit. When the Opposition commented against the redesign of irrigation projects he said, “I have a list of who is doing what—who is filing cases against the government and who are providing legal assistance to cases aimed at stalling the projects. The list will soon be made public. The irrigation minister is likely to release the list in the House during a debate on the irrigation demands.”
Trying to appease the unemployed youth of the state, the CM said, “I request unemployed youth of the state not to fall into the trap of Opposition parties, who are a group of unemployed politicians."
He promised to fill up one lakh vacancies in various government departments in the next two years and in the same breath, questioned why the Congress could provide only three lakh jobs in 60 years when there are 1.03 crore families in the state.
