HYDERABAD: Despite being hit hard by a pandemic-induced economic slowdown, the Telangana government proposed an ambitious outlay of Rs 2,30,825 crore in the 2021-22 budget presented on Thursday with a slew of allocations for various welfare schemes.
It was for the first time that the total budget outlay crossed Rs 2 lakh crore after the formation of the state. The outlay this year was Rs 48,000 crore more than what was proposed in 2019-20 (Rs 1.87 lakh crore).
While keeping the focus on panchayat raj and rural development (Rs 29,271 crore), agriculture (Rs 25,000 crore), irrigation (Rs 16,391 crore) and social security pensions, finance minister T Harish Rao also announced a new scheme for SC welfare, “CM Dalit Empowerment Programme”, with an allocation of Rs 1,000 crore, an outlay of Rs 4,000 crore for school infrastructure and Rs 2,000 crore for improvement of digital facilities in schools.
And at a time when opposition parties are raising questions over delivering on past promises, the ruling TRS regime chose to continue with its schemes and made provisions for all the flagship initiatives such as Rythu Bandhu, farm loan waiver schemes, Rythu Bhima, Aasara pension and Kalyana Lakshmi scheme in the budget. Crop loan waiver scheme got Rs 5,225 crore, while Rs 11,728 crore was earmarked for ‘Aasara’(social security) pension. The budget allocation for all other schemes in the previous year was maintained, but the promise of unemployment allowance did not find a place, upsetting the opposition.
The government will also provide Rs 500 crore every year to mandal parishads and zilla parishads for development work, while Rs 500 crore was earmarked for model vegetable and non-veg (meat, poultry) markets in every city.
Stressing that in the past seven years Telangana has surpassed states having 70 years of history, finance minister Harish Rao proposed that revenue expenditure for this budget would be Rs 1,69,383 crore and capital expenditure would stand at Rs 29,046.77 crore. Hoping for a bounce-back of the economy, the revenue surplus in the budget is estimated at Rs 6,743 crore and the estimated fiscal deficit is Rs 45,509 crore.
“This would mean that the state will have less need for additional loans, but it would happen only if income expected is realised. In the current financial year, the state had a dent of Rs 50,000 crore. The state government must be hoping that the real estate economy generates more money into the market. The state may be looking for additional income sources,” Dr Krishna Reddy Chittedi, assistant professor, School of Economics at the University of Hyderabad, said.
Interestingly, there is no mention of sale of land to raise funds in the budget like the previous year.