The Andhra Pradesh government today presented the Budget for the year 2011-12 with an estimated total expenditure of Rs 1,28,542 crore, to the state Assembly while making no new proposals on taxes or programmes.
The Budget is expected to be revenue surplus by Rs 3,548 crore while the fiscal deficit for the year is estimated at Rs 13,670 crore, which would be 2.6 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP), said state finance minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy.
The proposed Budget is 15 per cent bigger in size over the current year’s revised estimate of Rs 1,11,195 crore, which was itself 30 per cent higher than the actual expenditure of Rs 85,107 crore for the year 2009-10.
The government has put the non-Plan expenditure at Rs 80,984 crore and Plan expenditure at Rs 47,557 crore. It has increased the Plan outlay, excluding Centre’s grant, by 29 per cent to Rs 42,000 crore for the year 2011-12, as compared with Rs 32,248 crore (revised estimate) in the current year.
However, the allocation to the irrigation sector remained at Rs 15,000 crore like last year. Allocation to the industrial sector has been increased marginally to Rs 858 crore from the present Rs 825 crore.
Apart from reiterating its commitment to various ongoing welfare programmes, including Rs 2 a kg rice scheme, housing, pensions and its health scheme - Arogyasri, the government has also promised to complete 43 irrigation projects that would create irrigation potential for 2.9 million acres in the next two years.
Tax revenues
The government has projected a 19 per cent rise in tax revenues to Rs 56,438 crore for the year 2011-12 as compared with Rs 47,429 crore (RE) for the current year apart from Rs 12,338 crore non-tax revenue (Rs 11,109 crore). Similarly, it is expecting Rs 32,218 crore from the Centre both in terms of share in central taxes and grants in aid, proposing a moderate 11 per cent increase over Rs 28,901 crore in the current year.
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According to the Budget statement, the state taxes during 2011-12 would form 55.88 per cent of the total receipts as compared with 54.24 per cent in the current year.
The government is proposing to mobilise Rs 1 lakh crore through various tax and non-tax sources while the remaining — about Rs 26,000 crore — would be through debt and other means to support the proposed expenditure. Higher budgetary expenditure projections have resulted in the rise in fiscal deficit which is estimated at Rs 17,601 crore as compared with Rs 13,669 crore in the current financial year.
The finance minister said the GSDP was expected to grow at 8.58 per cent during the current financial year as compared with 7.96 per cent in 2009-10. Similarly, industry and services sectors during the current year are expected to register a growth rate of 7.79 per cent and 9.61 per cent respectively.
“We have provided adequate funds for all the welfare and development schemes. The allocation for economic services represents 57.64 per cent and allocation for social services represents 40.78 per cent of the total Plan outlay of Rs 47,557 crore,” he said.
He also announced the government's decision to introduce a comprehensive financial management system for providing a seamless interface with all the stakeholders and an efficient mechanisms of electronic information sharing with external stakeholders in budgeting and accounting process with a budgetary allocation of Rs 100 crore.
Reactions
Commenting on the Budget, leaders of the Opposition parties said the numbers mentioned by the finance minister had no meaning as the state government was unable to spend according to the allocations being made to various sectors every year. They said about Rs 26,000 crore dues pertaining to previous budgets were yet to be cleared by the state government. TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu said the government had reduced the allocations to social services by 2 percentage points.