The final report of the just-concluded financial year 2015-16 gives a thumps up for Andhra Pradesh though the State did not get anticipated financial support from the Centre.
According to the report prepared by the Finance Department to be submitted to the Auditor General and to the Cabinet meeting on April 2, the State government had spent significantly more than the estimated expenditure for the year and the percentage of capital expenditure also went up steeply. However, the expenditure on welfare came down due to fall in the expected funds from the Centre, sources said.
The departments which spent a major chunk of total funds are Irrigation, Panchayat Raj, R&B and the expenditure in the Irrigation Department alone accounted for 180 per cent.
Though most of the departments could spend their budgetary allocations reasonably well, those that lagged behind were Education, Welfare, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry departments, according to sources. The fall in Central funds for pensions impacted the welfare expenditure, they said.
While the total budget expenditure for 2015-16 was Rs.1.13 lakh crore, the expenditure touched 1.17 lakh crore. While the Plan expenditure was estimated at Rs.34,412 crore, it reached Rs.46,453 crore (135 per cent) and it happened as the non-plan expenditure was brought down.
The capital expenditure target for the year was Rs.9,700 crore but the government spent a whopping Rs.15,832 crore (155 per cent).
On the revenue front too, the revenue accruals accounted for 98.2 per cent of the targeted revenue. While it should have been Rs.90,124 crore, including Central funds, State realised Rs.88,523 crore and this was much better than that of preceding year of 2014-15.
When one assessed the performance in the State’s own revenue, the non-tax revenue was Rs.4,350 crore (81.5 per cent) as against the target of Rs.5,241 crore. In the tax revenue, against the estimated revenue of Rs.44,423 crore, the State realised Rs.40,311 crore accounting for 91 per cent of the target.
One achievement, official sources said, was bringing down revenue deficit from Rs.7,299 crore to Rs.7,143 crore. The fiscal deficit, however, touched 3.74 per cent of GSDP.
The State government spent significantly more than the estimated expenditure
