The treasury benches were at the receiving end of the Opposition again in the Telangana Assembly on Thursday, when the latter bared the ‘yawning gaps’ in the budget estimates for 2015-16. They sought to know how the government was planning to mobilise and spend Rs.1,15,689 crore worth funds in the next 12 months.
Initiating the debate on the Appropriation Bills, N. Uttam Kumar Reddy of the Congress said the government’s inability to inform the revised estimates for 2014-15 to the House was an insult to the Assembly. It also raises questions over the credibility of budget in the absence of revised estimates at the fag end of the financial year, he noted.
Objecting to the Congress member’s comments, Finance Minister E. Rajender said the question of revised estimates would not arise in the newly-formed State in the first year as the budget was prepared based only on approximate spending and revenue generation in 10 districts of Telangana area of the combined Andhra Pradesh.
He stated that the income and expenditure of the government could be over Rs.65,000 crore during 2014-15 and the final figures would emerge only after auditing in June/July.
Citing the example of poor spending on the flagship scheme of the government, he said only Rs.56 crore was spent on the 3-acre land scheme for Dalits out of Rs.1,000 crore allocation and Rs.150 crore release. Similar was spending on the SC/ST Sub-Plans, he pointed out.
The 2015-16 budget outlay would not cross Rs.90,000 crore based on revenue receipts, Central funds/grants and borrowings till March 23, he noted, adding that the targets fixed for 2014-15 and 2015-16 were “over ambitious, unrealistic and unreasonable”.
Akbaruddin Owaisi of MIM sought to know why there was a need to go for supplementary demands for Rs.5,359 crore when there was a huge shortfall in income, including revenue receipts.
Except the Excise Department that realised Rs.3,141 crore against the target of Rs.2,800 crore for 10 months of 2014-15, there was a huge gap in accruals from all other resources, he pointed out.
G. Kishan Reddy (BJP), G. Sunitha (TRS), N. Vamsichand Reddy (Congress), R. Ravindra Kumar (CPI) and S. Rajaiah (CPI-M) also spoke.
