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1.4 lakh cr outlay likely
Telangana government has finalised nearly Rs 1.40 lakh crore budget proposals for the year 2016-17 as against Rs 1,15,689 crore budget presented last year. The Finance department is learnt to have decided to earmark nearly Rs 64,000 crore under planned budget.
2016-17 Telangana budget
Hyderabad: Telangana government has finalised nearly Rs 1.40 lakh crore budget proposals for the year 2016-17 as against Rs 1,15,689 crore budget presented last year. The Finance department is learnt to have decided to earmark nearly Rs 64,000 crore under planned budget.
The main reason for increasing budget outlay this year is that the government has given utmost priority to irrigation projects under re-designing and re engineering of the existing and pending projects. As announced by the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao earlier, highest allocation of Rs 25,000 crore will be made to irrigation projects, followed by Water Grid, development of road network and energy projects.
The officials said the expanded tax based revenue from Rs 35,500 crore to Rs 46,500 crore and the non tax revenue from Rs 13,200 crore to Rs 22,300 crore helped the government to increase the budget outlay.
“The increase in revenues by nearly 15 per cent in 2015-16 gave big relief to the state from the financial burden faced due to abnormal increase in the salaries of the government employees. Government hopes the same trend in tax collections will continue”, an official said.
The state government is harping on Central funding for the execution of Mission Kakatiya and Water Grid projects. It had already submitted proposals seeking Rs 30,000 crore for the two schemes over the next five years. But, the Centre was yet to respond.
The government’s repeated demand to increase the cap for raising funds under FRBM act (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) is also pending with New Delhi. At present, the limit allows states only to raise loans totaling 3 per cent of the GSDP.
TS government has been demanding to raise the limit to 3.5 per cent. There is no guarantee of Central funding for any scheme launched by the state government. Hence to reduce financial burden, allocations for some of the existing welfare and developmental schemes is likely to be cut, official sources said.
The draft budget prepared by the Finance department will be discussed in the pre- budget meeting to be chaired by the Chief Minister during February first week the sources said.
