Telangana to present its maiden budget on Nov 5

Likely to propose full-year budgetary expenditure of Rs 90,000 cr to Rs 1 lakh cr

The Telangana government is presenting its first annual Budget for the current financial year — though effective only for the remaining few months till March — on the first day of the Assembly session beginning Wednesday. The government is expected to propose a full-year budgetary expenditure of Rs 90,000 crore to Rs 1 lakh crore relying somewhat on the higher grants projected to come from the Centre.

The government of the undivided Andhra Pradesh had presented a vote-on-account Budget for the current year in February this year while taking approval of the state legislature for the expenditure of the first six-month period ending September, 2014. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao originally proposed to hold the Budget session on September 10, soon after the government of the truncated AP concluded its Budget session of the newly-formed legislative assembly.

However, he deferred the dates for a stated goal of preparing a ‘Telangana-centric’ Budget much beyond September since the Telangana government was empowered to release the budgetary grants from the consolidated fund for a maximum period of six months from the appointed day of June 2, which lasts till the end of this month.

With just one quarter of the current year left to effect any meaningful changes in the Budget spending, the Telangana government is planning to use this exercise to set a tone for long-term goals it has set for the development of the new state in the full five-year term, according to officials. The ambitious state water grid project, which seeks to address the water needs of the entire state, proposed with an estimated cost of Rs 27,000 crore, development of a small irrigation tank system and other newly-announced programmes are expected to find allocations.

The government is also making plans to announce the new industrial policy of the state during the Assembly session, which is expected to last till the end of this month.

Post bifurcation, the state's own income remained lower than 53 per cent of the combined revenues of the undivided AP as was projected earlier. This makes a strong case for the government to look for ways to increase its own resources, though achieving this by increasing the tax rates is a remote possibility. The government is banking on more grants from the Centre to support the Budget as AP had done in its Budget.

Also, one of the ways by which the government is planning to raise additional resources is through sale of lands for commercial use as was done by the Rajasekhara Reddy government when there was a real estate boom backed by higher public spending and economic growth in the state.

According to the officials, the government is also expected to announce a substantial programme or enhance the Budget aimed at improving the public health infrastructure in the state.