Chandrababu Naidu to allot Rs 5,000 crore for loan waiver in AP budget
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government will allot Rs 5,000 crore for the waiver of farm loans in the budget.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday discussed with finance minister Yanamala Rama Krishnudu and finance department officials about preparation of the budget. The budget will be presented on August 20 in the Assembly. The AP Assembly’s budget session will be from August 18 to September 12.
Finance Minister Yanamala Rama Krishnudu will present general budget on August 20 and agriculture minister Prattipati Pulla Rao will present the agriculture budget on August 22. The government will move an appropriation Bill on September 12, the last day of the session.
The CM gave some suggestions to finance officials about the budget. Mr Naidu told finance officials to make a provision of Rs 5,000 crore under the non-Plan head for waiver of farm loans. But finance officials said they have allotted only Rs 1,000 crore in the non-Plan budget. Then the CM told them to allot Rs 4,000 crore in the Plan budget for the Agriculture department.
Finance officials said the annual budget may cross Rs 1 lakh crore in 2014-15. In the months of April and May the united AP government spent about Rs 25,000 crore on various schemes and programmes. Of this Rs 10,000 crore was spent in Telangana. This amount is included in the present AP budget.
The CM told officials that the TD had promised in its manifesto some welfare programmes for Brahmins and Kapus, and asked them to allot money for this.
After the bifurcation in AP the SC population increased from 16.6% to 17.1% and STs decreased from 62% to 5.33%. This will reflect in the SC and ST sub-Plan allocations.
Mr Naidu asked officials to prepare a sub-Plan for BCs also but officials told him that it was not possible due to shortage of time. According to sources the non-Plan budget will be around Rs 80,000 to Rs 85,000 crore and the Plan budget will be around Rs 20,000 crore to 25,000 crore. Net borrowings will be about Rs 17,000 crore to Rs 18,000 crore.
The Agriculture Budget will be presented on August 22. The general practice is to present the agriculture budget along with the general budget. After completion of the finance minister’s budget speech the agriculture minister will present his budget.
But at the meeting with the Chief Minister it was decided to present the agriculture budget on August 22.
