The Telangana Assembly today approved the Finance Bill with a budgetary estimate of Rs 1,00,640 crore for the ten-month period of 2014-15 even as Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao stressed on the need for "fiscal prudence".
The six-month old state received an income of Rs 25,947.97 crore so far this fiscal with the state's own tax revenue touching Rs 15,101 crore, the Chief Minister announced.
Replying to the debate on the budget in the Assembly, the Chief Minister said the current budget was not full-fledged as there was no clarity yet on the devolution of funds from the Government of India.
"There is a new government at the Centre and it has not yet finalized its policy formulation. There could be changes in many Central schemes like MGNREGS, housing, JNNURM, etc. I will meet the Prime Minister and other Union Ministers soon to discuss these issues and we will present a full-fledged budget for the next financial year much before March 31," the Chief Minister said.
Since Telangana was a new state, it had sought enhancement of borrowing limit under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.
"The Centre has asked us to furnish more details in this regard. We are actively following up on that," he added.
The Chief Minister explained that the state's own tax revenue was expected to be Rs 35,378 crore and non-tax revenue Rs 13,242 crore as per the current trends.
A sum of Rs 21,720 crore was expected from the Centre in the form of Grants-in-Aid.
KCR said welfare of the poor was his government's top priority.
"That we are going to spend Rs 3600 crore-Rs 4000 crore on social security pensions is an indication of our commitment towards welfare. At the same time, our thrust is also on development with focus on key sectors like agriculture," he added.
