Government has identified sources for additional revenue, claims Bhatti

Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka claimed that the government had identified sources to generate additional revenues to fulfill the initiatives announced in the budget and the six guarantees of Congress.

Hyderabad: Refuting allegations of the Opposition that the government did not have funds to take up various development works announced in the budget, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka claimed that the government had identified sources to generate additional revenues to implement the initiatives announced in the budget and the six guarantees promised by the Congress.

Speaking to the media after presenting the State budget in the Assembly on Thursday, Bhatti said the government had already started the exercise to identify sources of revenue and that it would manage to fund all the programmes announced by it. Every week the government would review the revenue status of the State and improve it in those sectors wherever it was needed, he added.

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“We cannot reveal the details of the sources from where the government will get additional revenue. Wait and watch. There will be no shortage of funds for any programme or schemes. There are ways to get revenues. We will do it and show. Opposition was claiming that the government does not have money to implement the crop loan waiver, but we did it. In a similar manner, we will implement all the programmes,” he said.

On how the government would overcome the fiscal deficit of Rs.59,000 crore, he said in the last budget the fiscal deficit was high, however, this time it was less than three percent, which was manageable.

Responding to Leader of Opposition and BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao’s comment that the Congress government had not allocated sufficient funds for the agriculture sector, the Deputy Chief Minister said the BRS government had allocated Rs.26,000 crore for the agriculture sector, whereas his government had allocated Rs.72,000 crore in the current budget. “We have allocated 25 percent of the total budget for the agriculture sector,” he said.