Ahead of the upcoming general elections, the State government on Tuesday showered sops on the farming community, the women and the entrepreneurs in the vote-on-account Budget presented for 2019-20 with an outlay of ₹2.26 lakh crore. Deviating from the convention followed in the vote-on-account budget, it announced six new major schemes including Annadata sukhibhava. It is estimated that the new schemes would require ₹6,200 crore.
Presenting the Budget in the Assembly, Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said, “Our government has been quite conscious of the increasing inequalities in society. Therefore, we have deliberately opted for a welfare-oriented developmental agenda that promotes inclusive development.” A step in that direction, ‘Annadatha sukhibhava’, a scheme to give economic support to the farmers with an allocation of ₹5,000 crore, was being launched. Land acquisition for house sites, incentives for industrial promotion, infrastructure facilities in urban local bodies etc top the agenda, he said.
During his 98-minute speech, the Finance Minister said, “To empower the Self-Help Groups (SHGs), the government would give assistance of ₹10,000 to each member in three spells to benefit 93.81 lakh people.” The revenue expenditure was estimated at ₹1,80,369.33 crore. The capital expenditure was estimated at ₹29,596.53 crore including ₹8,994 crore towards principal repayment of public debt. The revenue deficit would be around ₹2,099 core, while the fiscal deficit ₹32,390.68 crore, he said.
In his 11th Budget and the last of the present government, Mr. Ramakrishnudu said the government proposed to increase the allocations for important schemes including the Andhra Pradesh Market Intervention Scheme, farm mechanisation, livestock insurance, fodder and feed development, promotion of horticulture activities and development of fisheries. The Budget for these schemes had been increased to ₹1,924 from ₹1,140.68 in 2018-19. The welfare pensions would require ₹12,819 crore during next fiscal as against ₹5,012 crore in 2017-18. Along with this, the government had decided to increase the Chandranna Yuva Nestam pension to ₹2,000. “Our government has been working not only for the people who voted for us and who did not vote for us but also for the people who could not have voted for anyone — our children and grandchildren.”
The Panchayat Raj department and rural development received a lion’s share at ₹35,182 crore. The expenditure on State development schemes had gone up from ₹49103 crore in 2018-19 to ₹65486 crore in 2019-20. The Scheduled Castes component went up from ₹11,229 crore to ₹14,367 crore. The ST component had gone up from ₹4,176 crore to ₹5,385 crore. The BC component, which Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had emphasised at the recent Jayaho BC, was pegged at ₹16,226 crore, 33% increase compared to this fiscal. The budget, however, was silent on mobile phones promised to the DWCRA groups by the Chief Minister recently.