Telangana Cabinet approves vote-on-account Budget for 2019-20

Hyderabad: The Telangana state Cabinet led by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday approved a vote-on-account Budget for 2019-20, to be presented in the Legislature on Friday.

According to a press release issued from the Chief Minister’s Office, a Cabinet meeting chaired by Mr Rao at Pragati Bhavan approved supplementary demands for grant for 2018-19 and a proposal to replace the Ordinance with a Bill to amend certain provisions in the Telangana Goods and Services Tax Act 2017.

The brief Budget session will commence at 11.30 am on Friday. Mr Rao will be the first Chief Minister of a Telugu state to present the Budget after Nedurumilli Janardhan Reddy in 1992.

According to government sources, the Interim Budget has been prepared with over Rs 2 lakh crore according priority to the welfare, irrigation, agriculture, education and health sectors.

The Chief Minister had already announced that the state government will introduce the interim Budget for six months, keeping in view the ensuing Parliament elections.

In March 2018, the state government introduced the Budget for 2018-19 with a total outlay of Rs 1,74,453 crore.

Sources said the Budget has been made to honour promises made by Mr Rao during the elections, like increasing Asara pensions, which includes old age, disabled and widows' pensions, financial assistance under Rythu Bandhu scheme and allowance for the unemployed.

The Interim Budget, also known as vote-on-account, will seek the Assembly’s nod to meet expenditure for the first six months of 2019-20.

A full-fledged Budget will be presented in the House after the Parliamentary elections due in March-April.