A grim financial scenario in the face of a troubled political situation notwithstanding, Andhra Pradesh will go in for a hefty budget of over Rs 1.20 lakh crore for the 2011-12 financial year.
Finance Minister Aanam Ramanarayana Reddy will present the 2011-12 budget to the State Legislature tomorrow.
This will be the fourth successive year that the state will have a budget in excess of Rs one lakh crore. In 2010-11 the budget estimates were to the tune of Rs 1,13,675 crore and Rs 1.03 lakh crore in 2009-10.
“It will be a realistic budget and will meet every requirement,” Mr. Ramanarayana Reddy told PTI on the eve of his maiden budget presentation.
Noting that the State’s revenue witnessed a shortfall in the previous two years, Mr. Reddy said the situation improved in the 2010-11 fiscal.
Despite the shortfalls, the minister pointed out, the state had been presenting a “tax-free and deficit-free” budget for the past few years.
In the 2010-11 budget, a sum of Rs 1,13,600 crore has been earmarked for expenditure - both plan and non-plan - but the government could not spend even Rs 70,000 crore as per the latest estimates available, official sources said.
Presenting the Macro Economic Framework Statement for the first half of the current fiscal to the state Assembly today, the Finance Minister said an expenditure of Rs 38,839 crore (plan and non-plan) was incurred between April and September 2010 while the revenue receipts were Rs 33,704 crore. The fiscal deficit during the period stood at Rs 5,070.95 crore.
Ever since it came to power in 2004, the Congress government had been earmarking a lion’s share of the state budget for the Jalayagnam (irrigation projects) programme. In 2010-11, a sum of Rs 15,000 crore was allocated for irrigation but not even half that has actually been spent so far because of the severe funds crunch.
Similarly, the government had to impose drastic cuts in expenditure on many welfare schemes despite grandiose allocations in the budget.
A case in point is the fee reimbursement scheme for students pursuing professional courses. Though Rs 3,000 crore has been earmarked in the budget, the government released only Rs 1,000 crore, that too after the Supreme Court rapped it on the issue.
The ongoing agitation for a separate Telangana has also cast a spell on the state’s finances. The non-cooperation agitation launched recently has resulted in non-collection of revenue causing loss in several hundred crore rupees to the exchequer.
All such factors notwithstanding, the government will present a budget of over Rs 1.20 lakh crore for the ensuing fiscal.
The State Cabinet will meet tomorrow morning and formally approve the budget estimates before they are presented to the Assembly at 12 noon.
