The Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday presented the state’s annual budget for 2021-22 with an outlay of ₹2,29,779 crore and focus on welfare, health, agriculture and education.
Andhra Pradesh finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy estimated a revenue expenditure of ₹1,82,196.54 crore and capital expenditure, including loan repayments and other capital disbursements, estimated at around ₹47,582.73 crore.
The minister presented the budget in the state legislative assembly after Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan’s customary address to a joint sitting of the two Houses during the one-day session. The one-day session was called by the YSR Congress Party government as a “statutory obligation”, as is mandatory for Assembly to meet every six months.
The budget projected the revenue deficit at around ₹5,000.05 crore, which is 0.47% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and the fiscal deficit at around ₹37,029.79 crore, 3.49% of the GSDP.
The budget, which is generally presented in March, was delayed by two months, as the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy led state government deferred the budget session on account of elections to urban local bodies and bypoll to Tirupati parliamentary constituency.
Earlier in the wake of delayed budget session, the state government had taken the ordinance route on March 31 to adopt the vote-on-account budget for ₹70,994.98 crore for the first three months of the financial year 2021-22, beginning on April 1.
Stating that building effective social infrastructure was imperative for registering consistent progress in strategic development goals, Reddy said, “Nava Ratnalu (nine jewels) programme taken up by the chief minister was devised to prioritise welfare of all sections of people, particularly the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, BCs, EBCs and minorities.”
He said an amount of ₹28,237 crore has been allocated for the weaker sections. The economically backward sections were allocated ₹5,478 crore, an increase of 8% over the previous year. Kapus (an agrarian ommunity in the state) were allocated ₹3,306 crore, Brahmins ₹359 crore, SC sub-plan ₹17,403 crore, ST sub-plan ₹6,131 crore, minorities ₹3,840 crore, child welfare ₹16,748 crore and women development ₹47,283 crore, the minister said in the budget.
The finance minister also made a substantial allocation of ₹13,830 crore for the health sector, including ₹2,258 crore under Dr YSR Aarogyasri scheme to provide free-of-cost treatment to the poor and needy patients in government and private network hospitals and ₹1,538.55 crore under Nadu-Nedu scheme to improve health infrastructure.
While agriculture sector was allocated ₹11,210 crore and education got the maximum of ₹24,624 crore, an amount of ₹5,661 crore was allocated for housing and infrastructure development and ₹1,000 crore for industrial incentives.
Reddy also announced enhancement of funds for the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme in various sectors. Some of the major allocations made under the DBT schemes include ₹17,000 crore to YSR Pension Kanuka, ₹3,845 crore to YSR Rythu Bharosa, ₹2,500 crore to Jagananna Vidya Deevena, ₹1,802 crore to YSR Fasal Bima Yojana, ₹1,112 crore to Zero Interest loans for DWCRA groups and ₹500 crore to farmers etc.
While industrial and infrastructure development was allocated ₹3,673 crore, roads and buildings got ₹7,394 crore, energy sector ₹6,637 crore, municipalities and urban development ₹8,727 crore and irrigation ₹13,237 crore.
“Andhra Pradesh currently ranks 3rd at the national level across 17 strategic development goals. It shall be our endeavour to be at the forefront of achievement of SDGs at the national level. To invest in the future of our citizens and empower them to realise their true potential shall continue to be the constant endeavour of our government,” the finance minister said.
The principal opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) boycotted the one-day budget session in protest against the “misrule” of the state government. The TDP said it will hold a ‘mock’ Assembly session on Thursday evening and Friday morning to discuss state government ‘failures’. The budget was subsequently passed without any discussion.
D Tirupati Raju, chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Andhra Pradesh unit, said despite Covid-19 pandemic, the state government has taken required steps for sustainable growth.
“The allocations made in the budget for welfare schemes would create demand for various goods and services in the economy and industry move. In fact, the budget introduced gender-specific and children-specific allocations with a greater focus on measurable outcome on the money spent for children and women are the vision of the education importance to society,” Raju said.
On industrial front, he said, the government should further focus to showcase the strengths of the state to attract greater investments.
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