Telangana government will not impose any new taxes, says Bhatti

Consultants would be roped in for suggesting measures on generating alternative revenue resources, said Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka

Hyderabad: Assuring that the State government would not impose any new taxes on the people, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said emphasis would be laid on generating alternative revenue resources for effective implementation of guarantees, besides taking up other welfare and development programmes.

Consultants would be roped in for suggesting measures on generating alternative revenue resources, he said in the Assembly here on Thursday.

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The Finance Minister accused that the past government of focusing on presenting inflated budget annually. There was a difference of nearly 20 percent in the budget estimates and actual expenditure every year, he pointed out.

“Unlike the previous government, the Congress government presented a realistic budget. All measures will be taken to ensure the difference in the budget estimates and expenditure is about five to eight percent,” Bhatti Vikramarka said.

When the Finance Minister said Telangana was ranked second from the bottom after Punjab in the budget expenditure, BRS working president KT Rama Rao raised an objection and urged the Minister to also speak about Telangana’s Per Capita income and other indexes.

Bhatti Vikramarka also said gross borrowings of Rs 60,000 crore would be raised as per GSDP from open markets. Considering the loans raised by the past government, majority of the loans to be raised would be used for payment of principle and interest components of old loans, he said.

Stating that the State government had allocated Rs 53,000 crore for implementation of guarantees, the Finance Minister said Rs 15,075 crore was allocated for Rythu Bharosa, Rs 7,740 crore for Indiramma houses, Rs 2,418 crore for Gruha Jyothi and Rs 723 crore for the Rs 500 LPG cylinder scheme.

He said the government was committed to filling up 2 lakh jobs, additional 64 posts were approved apart from appointment orders being issued to 6,956 nursing staff and 13,444 police constables posts were filled up.

To this, BRS members demanded that Minister also share the notification date and asked the Congress not to claim credit for the good work done by the BRS government.

BRS senior leader Kadiyam Srihari pointed out that despite Rs 60,000 crore borrowings and Rs 20,000 tax revenue, there would be a fiscal deficit of Rs 53,000 crore.

He also said that the State government had promised to construct 3,500 Indiramma Houses in each Assembly constituency. At this rate, Rs 23,000 crore would be required but only Rs 7,740 crore were allocated.

“I appeal to the government to give a breakup of the job calendar for filling up two lakh jobs. This apart, under Abhaya Hastham, Rs 12 lakh financial assistance is promised to SC and STs but no budgetary allocation was made,” Srihari said.

Citing utility of union government funds for Indiramma Houses, BJP Floor Leader A Maheswara Reddy demanded the Congress government to include former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee’s name in the programme. In reply to the BJP MLAs demand, the Minister said there would be no hesitation to place a photo or name of the former Prime Minister.

Demanding the State government to release a white paper on six guarantees and the funds required for implementation of each guarantee, AIMIM Floor Leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said there was contradiction of figures mentioned in the budget speech and budget volume.