Finance Minister T. Harish Rao has said that about 5.85 lakh farmers with loans outstanding up to ₹ 25,000 will be cleared of their burden this month itself as part of the loan waiver promise of the government.
The MLAs in respective constituencies will distribute the cheques for the loan amounts in villages across the State, Mr. Rao told a post-budget press conference.
Stating that no decision was taken on imposition of new taxes, he said the State was already on growth path this year (2019-20) with six % hike in State’s Own Revenue and 10.5 to 11 % in overall rate. The growth rate was better than some other States.
Mr. Rao was, however, critical of the double-edged weapon used by the Centre to cut into the revenues of the State government. It promptly slashed the release where the recommendations of the Finance Commission went against the State but did not consider where the State was favoured.
First, the State will get ₹ 2,384 crore less in 2020-21 going by the interim report of the 15th Finance Commission to cut down the tax devolution to States from 42 to 41 %. Pro-rata, the percentage for Telangana will go down from 2.437 to 2.133 which translated into ₹ 2,384 crore lesser devolution. In 2019-20 also at the old rate of 42 %, the devolution to the State dropped from ₹ 20,583 crore in the vote-on-account budget presented by Modi government before Parliament elections to ₹ 19,719 crore in the regular budget post-elections. In the revised estimates towards the end of the year, the devolution was brought down to ₹ 15,988 crore which was ₹ 4,595 crore lower than original estimates.
Secondly, the Finance Commission had recommended a grant of ₹ 730 crore but this was not conceded by the Centre.
Referring to Goods and Services Tax claims, Mr. Rao said the State government did not get any compensation for implementing the regime in the first two years — 2017-18 and 2018-19 — but was entitled to ₹ 3,196 crore in 2019-20 as its growth rate was less than the threshold level of 14 %. The Centre had so far released ₹ 2,263 crore out of ₹ 3,196 crore but its claim of ₹ 2,300 crore for implementation of Integrated GST was still pending.
Mr. Rao announced a fund of ₹ 10,000 crore for Hyderabad Urban Agglomeration scheme. Completion of intra-town pipeline network under Mission Bhagiratha in 38 towns would cost the government ₹800 crore as the contractor quit without completing the project. A start up grant of ₹ 300 crore for Godavari Riverfront Tourism project, market intervention fund of ₹ 1,000 crore and sanction of ₹ 300 crore to Forest Department for green cover improvement were among flagship programmes of the government this year.
