The State government is in the midst of finalising the vote-on-account budget for presentation in the Assembly in the coming weeks.
It is expected to be adopted in February and sources say that the ongoing winter session, currently debating the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Bill, may be extended to pass the vote-on-account budget.
Sources, however, said that the speculation about the fate of the bifurcation Bill has no impact on preparations for the vote-on-account budget, which authorises the State government to draw money from the consolidated fund and disburse money for payment of salaries, pensions and to meet essential expenditure on projects and works in progress.
If the State is bifurcated before the general elections, the budget for the united Andhra Pradesh will be divided between the two States based on some formula.
The full-fledged budget will be adopted by the new government or governments that will be in place after the elections scheduled in May, sources said.
Various departments have been sending their expenditure proposals to the Finance Department online to enable them present the vote-on-account budget as and when the Chief Minister would decide, sources said.
Meanwhile, the Finance Department has put on trial a software to track progress of ongoing projects before clearing the bills submitted by the contractors.
“At present, we are fixing some bugs in the software which requires the contractor to provide updated information about the work/project under execution. The software will be stabilised in a month and then we will be better off than now in tracking the work progress before releasing the bills,” sources added.
There are reports that the proposed bifurcation has cast a shadow on the pace of projects as the contractors fear in clearing of bills if the State is indeed divided.
