Telangana to keep Budget realistic

Hyderabad: With the union Budget for 2022-23 turning out to be a major disappointment for Telangana and no major increase in revenue receipts or grants from the Centre, the State government has decided to keep its budget realistic. Officials of Finance Department have begun fine-tuning the State budget for 2022-23, maintaining a fine balance between […]

Hyderabad: With the union Budget for 2022-23 turning out to be a major disappointment for Telangana and no major increase in revenue receipts or grants from the Centre, the State government has decided to keep its budget realistic. Officials of Finance Department have begun fine-tuning the State budget for 2022-23, maintaining a fine balance between welfare and development.

Sources said the budget is likely to witness a marginal increase of 10-15 per cent against last financial year’s budget outlay of Rs 2.31 lakh crore. The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) was recorded at around Rs 9.8 lakh crore in the last financial year, which is likely to cross Rs 10.5 lakh crore during the current fiscal. Over the last eight years, the average GSDP growth was 7.5 per cent.

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While agriculture continues to be a priority sector along with welfare programmes, education and health are expected to get major share in the budget. The flagship programmes like Dalit Bandhu, Mana Ooru-Mana Badi, health infrastructure development along with other programmes are likely to be given priority in budget allocations.

Dalit Bandhu alone will be allocated Rs 20,000 crore as was announced by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. The education sector is likely to receive a major boost with more than Rs 10,000 crore including funds for ‘Mana Ooru-Mana Badi’ programme aimed to improve infrastructure and also introduce English medium in government schools. In line with the plans to improve health facilities including construction of five multi super specialty hospitals in the State, the allocations to health sector are likely to be around Rs 12,000 crore i.e. nearly double the current fiscal’s Rs 5,868 crore allocation.

Finance Minister T Harish Rao had presented an ambitious budget of Rs 2.31 lakh crore for 2021-22. As against a target of total Rs 1.76 lakh crore in terms of revenue receipts, the State has realised Rs 86,051 crore including the State-own tax revenue of 74,496 crore at the end of December 2021 as per the Telangana State Accounts submitted to the Comptroller and Auditor General. The officials said at the of January 2022, the total revenue receipts have crossed Rs 80,000 crore.

The revenue collections were in line with budgetary targets, but non-revenue collection and Centre’s grant-in-aid have dented the overall revenue collections. The non-tax revenue stood at Rs 5,181 crore against the target of Rs 30,557 crore, while grants-in-aid received from the Centre was only Rs 6,367 crore against the budget estimate of Rs 38,669 crore. To compensate for the same, the State government was forced to increase the market value as well as the registration charges. The government is also auctioning lands in the districts, to generate revenue.

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