Finance Minister Etala Rajender on Friday defended the Rs. 65,000 crore expenditure which the State government incurred in the ten-month period in 2014-15 against the budgeted Rs. 1,00,637 crore, saying it actually translated into Rs. 78,000 to 80,000 crore if it were to be a full one year.
Winding up the five-hour long debate on the Appropriation Bill in the Telangana Legislative Council, Mr. Rajender said the expenditure would have been much more if the State government had received the estimated Central assistance of Rs. 31,463 crore.
It got only Rs. 14,002 crore and, as a result, fell short by Rs. 17,461 crore.
The State also did not get the expected Rs. 5,000 crore as a new-born baby and Rs. 4,000 crore due to the failure of the Centre to raise the borrowing limit under Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. In all, the State government lost almost Rs. 33,000 crore if the failure of sale and regularisation of lands to take off was also considered.
In these circumstances, Mr. Rajender said the expenditure of Rs. 65,000 crore was fair enough in ten months. The same would have been Rs. 80,000 crore in a 12-month period. The Minister added that the State government achieved 80 to 85 per cent of its targeted own tax and non-tax revenues, which was also a good sign.
He recalled that the budget papers of the Central and State governments generally showed revised estimates from tax and non-tax revenues at the year end in the range of 80 to 85 per cent.