TS maiden budget today

• Etela Rajendra to present budget at 11 am in Assembly
• Cabinet to meet at 10 am to approve budget
• Rs. one lakh crore budget envisaged

Hyderabad: Finance Minister Etela Rajendra is all set to present his maiden tax free budget in the newly formed Telangana State at 11 am on Wednesday. The TRS government is proposing to present a budget that will be somewhere between Rs 95,000 to one lakh crore. The State Cabinet which will give its approval to the budget on Wednesday morning.

According to Etela Rajender, the first budget of the TRS government would be ‘very practical’. Allocations would be made in such a way that every penny would be used for people’s welfare and development. The unique feature of this budget being non-plan expenditure would be almost equal to that of plan expenditure. Non-plan expenditure was greater than plan expenditure in budgets introduced in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state but the TRS government has tried to maintain equilibrium between both of them. The government would look for ways to increase its revenues but there would be no cost cutting measures like reduction of staff, removal of contract personnel or scrapping of welfare schemes.

The TRS government would accord top priority to power, drinking water grid, improvement of roads and restoration of tanks besides welfare and development programmes. Allocations would be made for minority welfare of about Rs 1000 crore, pensions for the aged, widows and handicapped, Kalyanalakshmi scheme among others. Talking to The Hans India, the finance minister stated that this budget was unique in various ways. Usually a few ministers and top bureaucrats would prepare the budget. Perhaps for the first time in the country, the chief minister oversaw the entire exercise along with his cabinet colleagues.

Fourteen task-force committees were constituted to prepare budget proposals for departments such as social welfare, drinking water supply, sanitation, agriculture, dairy industry, infrastructure development, irrigation, energy, law and order among others. Besides budgetary allocation proposals, these committees were asked to devise short-term, mid-term and long-term policies and targets in the context of the new state of Telangana.

Also the public have been made stakeholders in this exercise. The suggestions and appeals made by people from villages, towns, districts as part of ‘Mana Vooru-Mana Pranalika’ programme have been taken into consideration in the budget preparation. The Intensive Household Survey gave a picture of socio-economic conditions in Telangana State which helped the government to fix its budget priorities, the finance minster said.

Due to the negligence of governments in undivided state, agriculture profession had become useless. However, the TRS government is committed to make it a profitable one. “Agriculture is one of our main focuses and hence we took steps to waive off farm loan to benefit around 36 lakh farmers. Already the first instalment has been paid,” he said. Deputy Chief Minister T Rajaiah will be introducing the budget in the Legislative Council.