Education, Health Get Sharper Focus, Tax Kitty Improves

Hyderabad: The Telangana Budget for the financial year 2026-2027, presented by deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Friday in the Assembly, was unique in several ways, including the introduction of a record nine new schemes.

Firstly, it projected an organic growth in both income and expenditure, besides borrowings. It also exhibited the Revanth Reddy government’s intent to walk the talk by making specific budgetary allocations for flagship infra projects, including Musi rejuvenation.

The Budget focused on two key sectors, education and health, which, according to Bhatti Vikramarka, determine the future of the state. It also gave the required impetus to women's empowerment through zero-interest loans to Self Help Groups.

“We could cater to students, employees and women. Additionally, the universal life insurance scheme named after former prime minister Indira Gandhi will reach every household in Telangana,” Bhatti Vikramarka, who also holds the finance portfolio, told Deccan Chronicle.

The government is in talks with Life Insurance Corporation of India for implementing the life insurance scheme, which will provide an immediate financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the deceased wage earner, he added.

Buoyed with 92 per cent realisation of the state’s own tax revenue for the fiscal 2025-2026, the government projected just 12 per cent growth in the state's own tax revenues at Rs 1.48 lakh crore for FY26-27 as against the last year’s revised estimate of Rs 1.34 lakh crore. The government projected excise revenue to increase by Rs 4,000 crore and Rs 2,500 crore additional income from the stamps and registration department.

The government pegged non-tax revenue, which also constitutes the auctioning of government lands, at Rs 35,730 crore and indicated fiscal discipline in borrowings. The open market loans will be Rs 73,383 crore, up by Rs 6,000 crore, and from the Centre it will borrow Rs 5,500 cr, up by Rs 1,000 crore.

“Unlike the previous government, the majority of our borrowings are going for debt servicing. We repaid Rs 71,000 crore in the last two years,” Bhatti Vikramarka said, adding that his government had successfully restructured debt of Rs 25,612 crore at a lower interest rate and extended repayment period, saving cash outflow of at least Rs 11,000 crore.

The lone exception to the realistic budgetary projections, however, is a massive provision for grants-in-aid from the Centre — a mistake that the previous BRS government also committed while presenting the poll budget in 2023. The state put central assistance at Rs 24,166 crore against the Revised Estimates of Rs 11,161 crore in the last fiscal.

The government went ahead with 100 per cent plus enhancement, though its previous year’s projections fell by the same percentage from Rs 11,782 cr. Bhatti Vikramarka, however, exuded confidence that his government would get maximum aid from the Centre by providing matching grants.

Another initiative in which Bhatti Vikramarka took pride was extending zero-interest loans to women SHGs. “Banks lent Rs 57,000 cr to SHGs, and imagine the economic activity generated with the loans,” he said, adding that a 99 per cent repayment rate would prove beyond doubt that the loans were put to productive use.