Telangana has got a Budget of Rs 1.30 lakh crore for the financial year 2016-17 though the State Government has cut the non-plan expenditure to make the Budget in tune with the ground realities.
Budget size this year was Rs 14,726 crore bigger than that of last year when the State had a Budget of Rs 1,15,689 crore.
The State Finance Minister Eatala Rajender presented the Rs 1,30,415 crore Budget in the State Assembly on Monday morning with a significant share of Rs 2,5000 crore earmarked for the irrigation sector. A whopping Rs 36,976 crore was allocated to the Mission Bhagirath, aimed at ensuring the safe drinking water supply to every household in the State. Irrigation sector has also been given a prominence in the Budget and an amount of Rs 6,286 crore was earmarked for the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project across river Pranahitha for which an agreement was signed by the States of Telangana and Maharashtra recently. Another Rs 7,861 were allocated for the Palamuru lift irrigation project. The Finance Minister said that every effort will be made to ensure the utilisation of 1,250 tmcft of water which was the share of Telangna in rivers Krishna and Godavari.
He noted that the neighouboring states of Maharashtra and Karnataka had built 450 barrages across rivers Krishna and Godavari.
The Budget has a planned expenditure of Rs 6,7630 crore and a non-plan expenditure of Rs 62,785 crore. less than two year old State was estimated to end the year 2016-17 with a revenue surplus of Rs 3,718 crore while the fiscal deficit was estimated to be at Rs 23,467 crore or 3.5 per cent of the GSDP.
The revenue of the State in the coming financial year was likely to rise to Rs 72,412 crore against the current year’s Rs 54,256 crore.
The Budget has a provision of Rs 3,718 crore toward waiver of the farmers’ debt. This is part of Rs 6,759 crore earmarked for the agriculture sector. E Rajender said that the State Government had already deposited the second installment of farmers’ debt waiver amount in the banks.
Setting a target of 23,912 MW power generation within next three years, Rajender said that from the next Kharif season the agriculture sector will get nine hour power supply. He also announced that 2,00,000 double bed room houses will be built for the poorer sections this year.
like the previous two years, KCR Government continued its emphasis on the welfare of weaker sections by earmarking Rs 2,538 crore for the backward classes, Rs 1,204 crore for the minorities, Rs 7,122 crore for Dalits and Rs 3,752 crore for the scheduled tribes. Fo the first time a Budget of Rs 100 crore was also allocated for the welfare of the upper caste Brahmins.
While the two neighbouring Telugu States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were seen to be caught in the race of one-upmanship in annual budget outlays for the last two years, Telangana this year seems to have given up this course. While AP’s Budget for 2016-17 presented last week had a bigger outlay of Rs 1.35 lakh crore, up from last year’s Rs 1.13 lakh crore, Telangana has kept its outlay at Rs 1.3 crore despite the general impression that its financial health was more robust than AP.