A balancing act awaits AP FM Yanamala

​Vijayawada: As the countdown for the presentation of the AP Budget for 2017-18 begins, Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu is getting ready for his 10th feat, showcasing his prudence, dexterity and experience to strike a balance between mutually conflicting agendas of development and welfare.

The budget presentation, scheduled on Monday has been deferred to Wednesday in view of the death of senior member Bhuma Nagi Reddy. The Business Advisory Committee is expected to make an official statement to this effect at its meeting soon after condolence session on Tuesday.

As the next general election is due to take place in the next two years, welfare has become a political compulsion for Ramakrishnudu regardless of the size of his purse. This is what he explicitly made it clear in an interaction with a select group of print media a few days ago ahead of his budget presentation.

“We don’t compromise either of development and welfare which are like two eyes of our government,” he asserted. But the poor financial condition of the state with revenue deficit estimated at 24,000 crore and the Centre’s promise of bridging the resource gap caused by bifurcation failing to become a reality stare at the FM in his face.

The government had made an outlay of Rs 3,300 crore for welfare in the last budget and Ramakrishnudu is expected to dole out anything not less than this figure in his latest budget. Experts however are keen to witness his balancing act. “You can’t have the cake and eat it too,” comments LSN Prasad, professor in Economics from Hindu College in Guntur. “If the government tilts in favour of welfare heavily, development will obviously take a beating,” he added.

The government always talks of development in terms of the ‘mischievous’ Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and industrial and infra growth even as social sectors such as health and education are crying for attention,” said KS Chalam, an economist from the Uttarandhra region and former Vice-Chancellor of Dravidian University at Kuppam.

The outgo for these sectors declined drastically in the last two years of the present government, he observed.
Another formidable challenge that may greet Ramakrishnudu in performing his task is to address regional imbalances in growth which sowed seeds of discontent in Rayalaseema and Uttarandhra regions.

According to Prof. Chalam, a large number of 15-20 lakh people migrated from the three districts of Uttarandhra region to settle in Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts as migrant labour, which indicated the skewed development of the State.

Exodus of people in large numbers is happening because of drought failing the crops, lack of irrigation facility and industries providing employment, he said while calling for constitution of the regional development boards in Uttarandhra and Rayalaseema regions as an antidote for imbalances in growth. The government claims to be allocating sufficient funds for irrigation in the backward districts. But who will benefit from government’s gesture when the local people deserted their native lands, he questioned.

When the Centre sanctioned Rs 700 crore under the special package for development of seven backward districts in Rayalaseema and Uttarandhra, there is no additional focus from the state government to ameliorate the conditions in these regions, he commented.

R Sudarsan Rao, member Andhra Pradesh Finance Commission, however sees some silver lining in spite of gloomy scenario on the resource front. “I am sure the Finance Minister with all his experience will live up to expectations of everyone,” he said, hoping the funds flowing from the centrally-sponsored schemes will come to his rescue in executing the welfare task.

He said there is no alarming situation with regard to migration of workforce due to provision of employment avenues being provided locally under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), he said. Meanwhile, Ramakrishnudu is seemingly looking up to the Centre desperately for some elbowroom in the form of funding to bridge the resource gap.

“When we estimated division-induced revenue deficit at Rs 14,000 crore, the Centre has arrived at Rs 8,000 crore and released half the amount. We are waiting for the release of the rest of the amount in the next spell,” he said.