Telangana Govt painted a rosy picture of State finances: Akbaruddin

Telangana Govt painted a rosy picture of State finances: Akbaruddin
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AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi on Saturday said that the Telangana government had presented a rosy picture of State\'s finance while in reality it was facing severe financial constraints.Participating in the debate on State\'s Budget for 2016-17 in Legislative Assembly on Saturday, Akbaruddin said, of Rs 1,05,993 crore budget for 2014-15, only Rs. 62,306 crore were spent. Similarly, the budget

Hyderabad: AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi on Saturday said that the Telangana government had presented a rosy picture of State's finance while in reality it was facing severe financial constraints.Participating in the debate on State's Budget for 2016-17 in Legislative Assembly on Saturday, Akbaruddin said, of Rs 1,05,993 crore budget for 2014-15, only Rs. 62,306 crore were spent. Similarly, the budget for 2015-16 was revised from Rs. 1.15 lakh crore to Rs. 100,062 crore. While there was a shortfall of Rs 43,687 crore in 2014-15, it was Rs 15,627 crore (13.5%) in 2015-16.

The MIM leader also pointed out the Central funds received by state. In 2014-15, the central transfers were estimated at Rs 31,470 crore, including Rs 9,749 crore from tax devolution and Rs. 21,721 crore from grants-in-aid. However, the State actually got only Rs 15,306 crore, including Rs 8,188 crore as tax share and Rs. 7,118 crore as grants. In 2015-16 also, state has got funds less than the estimations from the Centre, he said.

Akbaruddin faulted Finance minister E Rajender for projecting huge revenues. State targeted Rs 48,620 crore revenues through tax and non tax collections in 2014-15. But, the actual receipts were only Rs 35,735 crore, he said. “Despite the shortfall of Rs 12,805 crore, government projected State’s own revenues of Rs 68,908 crore in 2015-16 Budget. The revised estimate is Rs 54,257 crore, including tax revenue of Rs 43,535 crore and non-tax revenue of Rs 10,722 crore in 2015-16.

This indicates a shortfall of Rs 14,651 crore in state’s own revenues, compared to budget estimates. Yet, the Finance Minister has again projected state’s own revenues at Rs 72,412 crore in 2016-17 Budget, including Rs 54,870 crore tax revenues and Rs. 17,542 crore non-tax revenues," he explained.

The AIMIM leader said the State’s public debt rose from Rs. 72,415 crore in June 2014 to Rs. 83,846 crore by March 2015. This worked out to 16.06 percent of the GSDP. The public debt would reach Rs. 100,708 crore by March 2016 as per revised estimate. This would be 17.27 percent of the GSDP. By March 2017, the state public debt would soar to Rs. 1,23,821 crore, or 18.46 percent of the estimated GSDP. The public debt, thus, would grow by Rs. 51,406 crore in the three financial years since the formation of Telangana, he said.

In this scenario, he said the State budget size for 2016-17 was almost double the actual expenditure incurred in 2014-15. "I am afraid that the State’s financial resource position is not very conducive to facilitate such a massive step-up in the plan and non-plan expenditure in the ensuing financial year," he said. He demanded to allocate at least Rs. 35,000 crore each financial year for SC, ST, BC and Minorities welfare to achieve it target of spending Rs. 1 lakh crore in five years.

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