Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy presented a massive Rs. 1.83 lakh crore budget for the financial year 2014-15 in the Legislative Assembly on Monday.
Amid slogan shouting by the Telangana and Seemandhra members, the Finance Minister introduced the vote on account budget for the next six months. He said the Plan expenditure is pegged at Rs. 67,950 crore and the non-plan expenditure estimated at Rs. 1,15,179 crore. The budget is close to 10 per cent higher than the previous year's Rs. 1.61 lakh crore which included plan outlay of Rs. 59,422 crore and non-plan expenditure of Rs. 1.01 lakh crore.
The commencement of the budget session was marked by protests by Congress MLAs from Telangana MLAs who were upset over the way the women Ministers were treated in New Delhi recently. Telangana Ministers kept off from the Cabinet meeting conducted ahead of the session.
They held a meeting at the residence of senior Minister K. Jana Reddy this morning to discuss the future course of action. Though Ministers Danam Nagender and Mukesh Goud were present in the Assembly at the time of the Cabinet meet, they did not attend the meeting.
Introducing the budget for the fourth consecutive year, Mr. Ramnarayana Reddy said the budget projected an estimated a revenue surplus of Rs. 474 crore and fiscal deficit of Rs. 25,402 crore by the end of the financial year. The revenue surplus by the end of the current fiscal is estimated to be Rs. 1.023 crore and the fiscal deficit likely to be around Rs. 24,487 crore.
The fiscal deficit, he said, pegged around 2.6 per cent of the GSDP was well within the limit prescribed by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. As the din continued, Mr. Ramanarayana Reddy cut short his 32-page address and concluded it within 15 minutes.
