Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has projected the total budgetary outlay for the next financial year at ₹ 1.82 lakh crore springing a surprise on those expecting higher outlay for 2019-20 given its impressive growth in revenues.
Interestingly, the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh proposed a Vote on Account of ₹2.25 lakh crore for 2019-20 despite being a revenue deficit State.
The development, senior officials said, follows a series of discussions the Chief Minister held with the Finance department officials where it was decided to project realistic estimates of the annual financial outlay rather than relying on enhancement of numbers every passing year. It was accordingly decided to factor in the actual spending at the ground level vis-a-vis the projections made in the budget.
The Irrigation sector, for instance, had seen allocations of ₹25,000 crore annually for the last few years (for 2019-20, it is ₹22,500 crore) whereas the actual expenditure incurred hovered around ₹ 15,000 crore to ₹ 17,000 crore each year. “The gap between the actuals and projections is widening over the past few years, prompting the need for making the allocations more realistic,” a senior official said. The same was the case with other sectors which witnessed expenditure less than what was projected in the annual financial outlay.
Asked if the proposed revenue surplus of ₹ 6,564 for 2019-20 is realistic, sources said given the robust growth of Gross State Domestic Product estimated at 15% for 2018-19 it would not be an issue. The revenue expenditure mainly accounted for salaries, debt servicing and principal repayment. The calculation may go wrong only if the economy would slow down bringing down the growth rate, sources said.
In the wake of 15th Finance Commission cautioning the State about the fiscal deficit and debt burden and seeking a road map on how it proposed to tackle it, the State government apparently decided to go by the real expenditure year-on-year. “The enhanced estimated allocations will in turn make the departments plan for projects in anticipation of funds which may not be possible to provide for,” they added.
