The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday presented the annual Budget for the year 2012-13 with a total outlay of Rs 1.46 lakh crore, an increase of 18.71 per cent over the revised estimates of the current year, proposing higher allocations to social sectors.
While the government continued with the past tradition of proposing no new taxes, it , however, announced a couple of new programmes.
The government will be introducing an innovative Convergence Fund scheme that aims to use Government of India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for taking up permanent works in rural areas with a top-up funding from the state exchequer from the next financial year.
According to the new plan, the works will be taken up initially with 40 per cent of funds from MGNREGS and the balance will be funded through the Convergence Fund that is being set up with an initial allocation of Rs 600 crore. The scheme will initially be applied to works taken up under MGNREGS for all weather rural connectivity and minor irrigation.
It will also build mini stadia comprising indoor and outdoor stadiums and athletic track in every Assembly constituency in the next fiscal with an add-on plan to extend the same to each mandal in the next 2-3 years.
Finance minister Anam Ramanarayan Reddy presented the annual Budget with a revenue surplus of Rs 4,444 crore compared with the revised estimate of Rs 780 crore surplus in the current year while owing to reduce the fiscal deficit to 2.5 per cent next year from the present 2.63 per cent.
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The government expects to mobilise Rs 1.17 lakh crore through revenue receipts including central flows besides around Rs 28,000 crore through public debt to support the budgetary expenditure proposed for the next financial year.
State’s own revenues, including non tax component, are expected to grow 21.7 per cent to Rs 79,873 crore next year from Rs 65,629.5 crore in the current year, according to the Budget estimates.
The minister started his speech citing reasons behind the poor performance of the state’s economy during the current year that saw the GSDP growth rate falling to 6.8 per cent (advance estimates), lower than the national average and the lowest in the past six years.
“In addition to the external factors, the state had faced a severe drought during the last year's kharif season apart from agitations that disrupted the normal functioning for long periods," Reddy said. He, however, added that the revenue generation during the year was maintained at levels that could support the public expenditure proposed in the current year. The state's own tax revenue registered a growth of 19.5 per cent up to January, 2012, as compared with a 23.63 per cent growth targeted for next year.
The government has proposed a Plan outlay of Rs 48,934.89 crore, which is 33.5 per cent of the expenditure proposed in the Budget. When it comes to the overall expenditure, both Plan and non-Plan, the budgetary allocations indicated a clear shift in favour of social sector spending.
In the Budget estimates, the share of social sector, which includes education, health, social welfare, housing, in the overall expenditure has gone up to 31.74 per cent as compared with 22.87 per cent in the current budget. This is mainly on account of rise in proportionate allocations to the education sector in the non-Plan area. Education alone accounts for Rs 18,570 crore of the total allocation of Rs 46,290 crore for the social sector.