Estimates gone awry: Telangana ends up with revenue deficit instead of surplus

HYDERABAD: In a complete reversal of fortunes, the Telangana government is staring at a revenue deficit which is almost equal to the revenue surplus amount optimistically fixed by the State last year during the 2017-18 Budget.The government had estimated that the revenue surplus would be `4571.31 crore at the end of the financial year, but after ten months of the Budget, the revenue estimates were reversed and now the State has a revenue deficit of `3,643.66 crore (with minus 79.71 per cent deviation). This shows that the revenue deficit of the State has increased at a fast pace in the last ten months of this fiscal. 

The revenue deficit of the State budget should be seriously looked into, especially when the State is expected to present a huge Budget of around `1.8 lakh crore to `2 lakh crore for 2018-19. The revenue deficit will be a worrying factor for the one of the richest States in the country.The deficit in government account represents gaps between receipts and expenditure.

The revenue deficit is the the excess of revenue expenditure over revenue receipts. With the State turning from revenue surplus to revenue deficit, the fiscal deficit of the State too is expected to increase beyond the stipulated norms of Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act. In 2016-17, the Gross State Domestic Production (GSDP) was `6,54,294 crore and the fiscal deficit was `24,140.01 crore up to January, according to the findings of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). 

However, one positive thing is that the State  government is spending a lot on capital expenditure. The capital expenditure the since the inception of Telangana is around `1.19 lakh crore, which is more than ten years’ capital expenditure from 2004 to 2014 in Telangana during ten years of Congress rule in united AP.
According to the latest report of CAG, the  capital expenditure up to January end in 2017-18 fiscal is `17,805.79 crore as against the capital expenditure of `17,276.93 crore for the same period up to January in 2016-17 Budget. 

With the State’s estimates going wrong on revenue surplus, the finance department officials reportedly asked the government not to announce any new populist schemes in 2018-19, the last full budget of the present TRS government.

TRS strategy meet
The TRS Legislature Party will meet on Sunday to chalk out its strategy to be adopted in the Budget session.The TRSLP meeting will be chaired by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao who will be giving the direction to his party MLAs and MLCs to hit back at Opposition parties. 

Congress ready
The Congress has identified 20 issues to corner the TRS government in the Budget session. The main Opposition will be raising the issue of the failure of the government to provide three acre land to dalits, two bedroom houses, preventing farmer suicides etc