Telangana State which proposed its budget for 2018-19 with a total estimated expenditure of ₹1,74,453 crore and an estimated revenue surplus of ₹5,520 crore apparently banks on its double-digit growth from year to year after bucking the national trend.
The Socio-Economic Outlook-2018 for Telangana points out that due to significant increase in public spending on irrigation, energy, drinking water, roads etc., there has been a turn around in these sectors. At the same time initiatives in health and education and social security schemes provided social safety nets to some extent to poor and marginalised sections.
Justifying the positive outlook are the growth rates of Telangana vis a vis all India growth rates. While the all India growth at constant prices is estimated to decline from 7.1% in 2016-17 to 6.6% in 2017-18, the State economy is estimated to improve from 10.1% to 10.4% cent in the same period.
The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at current prices for 2017-18 is estimated to be ₹7.33 lakh crore as against ₹6.42 lakh crore in 2016-17 , exhibiting a growth rate of 14.1%. In its very first year after formation, the State registered a growth of 12% and continued the growth momentum. The per capita income of the State increased by 13.4% to ₹1.54 lakh in 2016-17 and estimated to rise to ₹1.75 lakh in 2017-18 which is much higher than the national average of ₹1.12 lakh.
The fiscal policy for the year 2018-19, government says, is intended to promote capital expenditure in irrigation and other infrastructural sectors without compromising expenditure commitment on account of various welfare schemes taken up by it. This will be achieved by efficient management of revenue collections and optimum utilisation of available resource, it said in the fiscal policy statement
The State with its own estimated revenue receipts of ₹73,751 crore during 2018-19 will strive to improve tax administration, plug leakages and expand the tax base to fully exploit the tax potential available under various heads. Despite the fallout of demonetisation, initial problems related to GST, the State’s own revenues grew at 18.25 per cent in the 11 months of current fiscal compared to tax collections of corresponding period last year.
The fiscal policy will also took into the aspect of additional borrowing facility recommended by the 14th Finance Commission and the fiscal deficit has been budgeted at 3.45% of GSDP in 2018-19 budget.
