Telangana Budget on Feb 3 or 5; to continue growth story

The Budget session of the Telangana State Legislative Assembly is likely to be held in the first week of February, with Finance Minister T Harish Rao presenting the State Budget for 2023-24 tentatively on either February 3 or 5.

Hyderabad: The Budget session of the Telangana State Legislative Assembly is likely to be held in the first week of February, with Finance Minister T Harish Rao presenting the State Budget for 2023-24 tentatively on either February 3 or 5. Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao is expected to take a decision in this regard at a high-level meeting on the State Budget, slated to be held at Pragathi Bhavan on Saturday.

With the union Budget for 2023-24 scheduled to be presented in the Parliament on February 1, the State government will get clarity on the budgetary allocations from the Central government including the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) limits as well as the tax devolutions (States’ share in the Central taxes).

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Official sources indicated that the State Budget is being pegged around Rs 2.85 lakh crore to Rs 3 lakh crore for 2023-24. The Finance Department already started Budget preparations a couple of weeks ago and obtained necessary proposals from all government departments for various schemes and programmes being implemented in the State along with salaries and other expenditures. After ascertaining the Centre’s allocations to Telangana for 2023-24, the Budget will be fine-tuned and presented in the Assembly.

Sources say, despite the fiscal restrictions imposed by the Central government and delay in the release of funds for various schemes during this fiscal, Telangana recorded an impressive 19-20 per cent growth in the State-owned Tax Revenue (SOTR) which is being considered to be highest in the country. The SOTR comprises both tax and non-tax revenue, enabling the State to contribute to the nation’s growth.

As per estimations of the experts, Telangana lost nearly Rs 15,000 crore of SOTR due to the Centre’s restrictions in 2022-23. However, the preliminary estimates indicate that Telangana continues to maintain a higher growth rate in the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at more than 10 per cent at constant prices.

The Budget outlay for 2022-23 was Rs 2.56 lakh crore including revenue expenditure of Rs 1.89 lakh crore and capital expenditure of Rs 29,728.44 crore i.e. a total expenditure of Rs 2.18 lakh crore. Sources said due to increased SOTR, the overall expenditure has already crossed Rs 2 lakh crore and is expected to be more than Rs 2.15 lakh crore by the end of this financial year, indicating promising growth.

Though the State Budget is traditionally presented in March, the Chief Minister has reportedly asked the officials to complete the fiscal exercise and make arrangements to present the State Budget in February itself. “As the union Budget will be presented on February 1, we will get complete clarity on the allocations to our State. Hence, the Chief Minister felt that there was no point delaying the State Budget any further,” official sources said.

It is learnt that upon completing the Budget session in February and putting the State on the growth path, Chandrashekhar Rao is reportedly planning to shift his attention to national politics by the end of February. With the massive success of the BRS public meeting at Khammam, the Telangana model of development has grabbed the attention of people across the country. Sources close to the Chief Minister informed that Chandrashekhar Rao is keen to utilise this public attention and trigger discussion on the ‘national agenda’ proposed by the BRS across the country.