Hyderabad: Telangana’s Budget preparation exercise for 2015-16 has reverted to the conventional method after the ‘task force method’ devised by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao failed to achieve desired results.
Mr Rao formed over a dozen task forces for all major departments, comprising senior bureaucrats, to devise the Telangana’s first Budget last year against the convention of finance minister holding meetings with ministers and officials of respective departments to finalise budget proposals.
The over Rs 1 lakh crore Telangana Budget that was devised accordingly failed to meet the targets, forcing the government to switch back to the old method. Finance minister Etela Rajender, who was sidelined last year, has started the Budget preparation exercise for 2015-16, which is expected to be presented to the Legislature in the second week of March.
Mr Rao had himself interacted with task forces several times by convening special meetings at the National Academy of Construction, Gachibow-li, last year, stating that the new state needs not a ‘routine budget’ but ‘a Telangana-centric Budget’ which should address the needs and priorities of Telangana.
“Though the Budget was meant for 10 months from June 2014 to March 2015, its life was only for four months from December 2014. This was the reason for not achieving the budgetary targets. But this time, we will present a full Budget and will be more practical in our approach,” said Mr Rajender. The minister asked his Cabinet colleagues and heads of departments to be ‘realistic’ while drafting Budget proposals keeping in mind the ‘financial constraints’ being faced by the government.
