Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu has said the budget for 2018-19 is likely to be presented as per schedule in February/March 2018 in the absence of any information from the Central government on advancing the Union Budget.
“We have begun our budget exercise with due emphasis on curtailing wasteful expenditure. In this regard, a commission is being constituted to plug leakages.
The government is going to cut direct borrowings and facilitate fund raising by corporations and societies (off-budget borrowing) for which it will stand as the guarantor.
By doing so, the government will be able to confine itself to the Fiscal Responsibility Budget Management (FRBM) framework thereby avoid going for an overdraft. The government is managing its requirements by tapping the ways and means advances,” he stated.
Addressing a press conference at the Secretariat here on Monday, Mr. Ramakrishnudu said the revenue receipts during April-September of the current year (2017-18) were short of projections mainly due to the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a slump in real estate business and registrations.
The revenue earned by Excise and Mines Departments were slightly better.
On the other side, expenditure has gone up and some departments like Panchayat Raj, Roads and Buildings and Water Resources were seeking additional allocations, which the government was not in a position to make because of its FRBM constraints.
Capital expenditure during the half year stood at ₹10,000 crore which was helpful in creating assets and spending more on development.
The government has scope to borrow nearly ₹23,800 crore subject to the FRBM rules and the actual borrowings amounted to ₹16,000 crore.
“In spite of the crunch, no restriction has been imposed on paying salaries and clearing pending bills. Payments for works contracts will be made from November 10,” the Minister said.
Mr. Ramakrishnudu said a sum of ₹2,200 crore was due to be remitted by the Central government for Polavaram project (₹1,000 crore) and MGNREGS (₹1,200 crore).
The expenditure on those two counts was first met by the State government from its coffers.
Tax rates
Mr. Ramakrishnudu said he would press for removing certain anomalies in the implementation of GST and bringing down the tax rates on items like granite and tamarind at the GST Council meeting scheduled to be held at Guwahati next month.
A decision was to be taken on bringing down the rates of petroleum products which were high in Andhra Pradesh compared to States like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
