Revenue surplus budget

Plan expenditure more than non Plan

Hyderabad: Focusing on the flagship programmes of the state, Telangana State Finance Minister Eatala Rajender on Monday presented an unprecedented budget in which the plan expenditure is higher than that under non plan. Presenting the Rs 1,30,415.87 crore budget for 2016-17, the finance minister said, “the plan expenditure has been pegged higher than non plan without compromising on non-plan commitments by a combination of rationalisation of expenditure and resource augmentation."

This includes a plan expenditure of Rs 67,630 crore and non-plan outlay of Rs 62,785 crore. In an effort to fully utilise the state's share in the river waters, the government has allocated a whopping Rs 25,000 crore for the irrigation sector under plan outlay in the Budget as compared to an expenditure of Rs 8,500 crore for irrigation in the current financial year.

The Budget indicates a revenue surplus of Rs 3,718.37 crore and a fiscal deficit of Rs 23,467.29 crore, which is 3.5% of estimated GSDP. The higher revenue surplus is entirely on account of the proposed allocation of Rs 25,000 crore to the irrigation sector, which is mostly capital, according to Finance Minister Eatala Rajender.

The government expenditure in the current year fell short by Rs 15,000 crore. The minister attributed this to lower plan transfers from the Centre as well as lower than anticipated proceeds from the sale of land due to court litigation. The government plans to raise Rs 29,500 crore debt to support the plan outlay.

"Our share in the Krishna and the Godavari waters is 1,250 TMC (one thousand million cubic feet). There is an additional share of 150 TMC in the surplus waters. However, the uilisation of river waters in the Godavari and Krishna Basins has been much below our due share because of deliberate attempts in the combined state. Under the pretext of interstate disputes, construction of projects was not taken up," the minister said while explaining the rationale behind massive allocations for the irrigation sector.

Apart from irrigation, the government has made a substantial plan allocations to panchayat raj (Rs 8,919 crore), roads (Rs 3,525 crore) and health (Rs 2,462 crore), besides social sectors. In addition to this, a massive drinking water grid development programme costing over Rs 40,000 crore and the construction of 2 lakh double-bedroom houses for weaker sections, at a cost of Rs 11,000 crore, are going on outside the budgetary allocations, the minister said.

Terming industrial development as one of the top priorities of his government, the minister informed the House that plans have been drawn up to set up three aerospace parks in the state. Work on Phase I of the National Investment and Manufacturing Zone at Medak is expected to commence in 2016-17 and an amount of Rs 967 crore has been proposed under the plan for the promotion of industries during the new financial year.

On the energy sector, the minister said that the government is determined to achieve a power generating capacity of 23,912 Mw within the next three years as compared to a little over 7,000 Mw of existing capacity. Notables among the non-plan items in the annual Budget for 2016-17 include Rs 4,250 crore towards debt waiver to farmers, Rs 4,470 crore towards power subsidy and Rs 2,200 for the rice subsidy.