Hyderabad: The economic slowdown in the country and the gap between revenue and expenditure of the state government are likely to hit the allocations of the full budget for the financial year 2019-20, which will be presented by the Telangana state government in the Assembly on Monday. It’s the unrealistic allocations made by the Chief Minister that seem to be at fault not these other factors, according to this report.
According to sources, the government has cut the vote- on-account budget by 10 per cent in this full budget. The vote-on-account budget, presented in February had a total outlay of Rs 1.82 lakh crore. The full budget size will be around Rs 1.65 lakh crore.
The budget was appro-ved at the Cabinet meeting held on Sunday at Praga-thi Bhavan.With limited funds, the government has given priority to welfare schemes rather than developmental works.
According to sources, the allocation of funds to the priority departments of irrigation and agriculture has been reduced in the full budget. In the current financial year, the state’s own revenue and funds from the Central government will be reduced.
In the last financial year, the state government estimated that there would be Rs 6,428 crore in additional revenue in the budget than in the previous financial year. But in the revised budget estimate it has come down to Rs 6,175 crore. In the vote-on-account budget the state government estimated Rs 12,803 crore additional revenue in the current financial year, but officials are of the opinion that the additional revenue may not cross Rs 10,000 crore.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has himself said in budget review meetings that the revenue of state governments will come down drastically due to the economic recession.
To implement the poll promises will cost additionally Rs 70,000 crore in the current financial year. Officials in the know say it is highly impossible to begin some of the new schemes announc-ed in the current fiscal due to the financial constraint.
In its election manifesto, the TRS had announced many new schemes and also enhanced the amounts of existing schemes. There are pending bills with the government worth about Rs 10,000 crore. Till today, the government is not able to distribute investment subsidy to about 10 lakh farmers under the prestigious Rythu Bandhu scheme.
The TRS government doubled pensions from this current financial year and also reduced the age for eligibility of old age pensions. Accordingly the state government requires Rs 5,000 crore more in the current financial year, and if the new beneficiaries are also added, it will require another Rs 3,000 crore. The state government has enhanced the investment subsidy under Rythu Bandhu from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per year for each beneficiary. This places an additional financial burden on the state exchequer of Rs 2,000 crore.
The government has anno-unced waiver of Rs 1 lakh farm loans. This scheme re-quires Rs 24,000 crore according to estimates made by officials. The scheme will be implemented in four phases and in the current fiscal, Rs 6,000 crore is needed.
The unemployment allow-ance scheme, to be implemented from this financial year, gives each beneficiary Rs 3,016 per month. There is no data with the government about the number of unemployed educated youth in the state. Unofficial estimates but the number at 10 lakh. Taking this as the correct number, the state government will have to shell out Rs 3,000 crore per month, or Rs 36,000 crore per year.
Officials said for housing scheme the government needs Rs 4,000 crore more. Even if funds are allotted for these schemes in the budget, it will be difficult to make the funds available on the ground, officials say.
