With all the departments finalising the preliminary round of budget proposals, it is evident that the lion’s share of the allocation for 2018-19 will go to agriculture and allied sectors.
This will be the last full-fledged budget to be presented before the general election in 2019. The TRS government, which is confident of securing people’s mandate for the next term, is keen on making the ensuing budget set the agenda of development and welfare for the next five years.
With irrigation and agriculture commanding top priority of the State Government in its first five-year tenure, it decided to top it up with a separate budget for agriculture.
If the budget for 2018-19 is expected to be between ₹ 1.75 lakh crore and ₹ 1.8 lakh crore, with an 18% increase over that of 2017-18 in line with revenue growth post-GST, the agriculture budget will account for a whopping ₹ 50,000-plus crore including ₹ 25,000 crore for irrigation, according to sources.
The budget outlay for 2017-18 was ₹1.49 lakh crore and the Government hopes to spend at least 80% of it before the end of current financial year.
The agriculture budget for 2018-19 will encompass irrigation (₹25,000 crore), 24x7 free power supply (subsidy of about ₹ 600 crore), crop investment support scheme (about ₹ 12,000 crore), separate fund of ₹ 500 crore for Minimum Support Price to be released through the State-level Farmers’ Coordination Committee with a provision to borrow ₹ 2,000 crore to ₹ 3,000 crore on government’s counter guarantee, electricity expenditure to operate Lift Irrigation schemes of Kaleshwaram and Sitarama projects, seed and fertiliser subsidy and ₹ 5,000 crore to ₹6,000 crore regular revenue expenditure towards salaries, pensions, establishment expenditure etc.
Kaleshawaram and other irrigation projects, mission Kakatiya for revival of tanks, input assistance to farmers and setting up of farmers’ coordination committees were all meticulously planned by the Government towards fulfilling the promise of irrigating one crore acres and making agriculture profitable for farmers, sources said.
With most of the above components already under implementation, the TRS Government believes that a separate budget for agriculture will ensure that Secretaries of the agriculture and allied departments can draw funds every month from the budgetary allocation without having to wait for the clearance of the Finance Department.
There have been suggestions for separate budgets for women empowerment and BC welfare too. But, for now separate budget for BCs seems to be a possibility on the lines of SC, ST development budget in proportion to their population.
Last year, the Government passed the SC, ST Development Fund Act with provision to carry forward the unspent budgetary allocations to the next fiscal.
After agriculture, health sector will get good amount of allocation. The fund allocation, it is understood, will be made this time to Primary Health Centres, area-wise hospitals and also for health schemes like KCR Kits.
This will help each public sector health institution to utilise the allocated funds as per its requirement. Budgetary allocation will also be made for three government hospitals proposed within Hyderabad to ease pressure on Gandhi and Osmania General hospitals. Lands for the three government hospitals at Uppal, Bowenpally and Shamshabad were identified.
