Finance Minister T. Harish Rao on Thursday presented to the State Assembly budget of Telangana for 2021-22 with a targeted outlay of ₹ 2.30 lakh crore which is at least ₹ 48,000 crore more than the proposals for 2020-21 and revised to ₹64,000 crore recently.
Turning its back to a bad year induced by pandemic, the budget reflected the government’s resolve to mop up ₹ 1.76 lakh crore through revenue receipts (excluding borrowings) which is ₹ 59,000 crore more than the revised estimates of last year. The revised receipts fell short of budget estimates by ₹ 26,000 crore in 2020-21. The capital receipts in the coming year were contemplated at ₹ 53,850 crore, including open market loans of ₹ 47,500 crore.
A revenue surplus of ₹6,743 crore and a fiscal deficit of ₹ 45,509 crore are targeted in 2021-22 wherein a new scheme named CM Dalit Empowerment Programme is proposed with an allocation of ₹1,000 crore. The government decided to provide each MLA and MLC with ₹ 5 crore for development of their constituencies. The government also decided to provide an incentive of ₹ 30,000 per acre as subsidy for oil palm farmers. Taking into account, the future drinking water needs of Hyderabad, the government planned to take up a new project to bring water to the city from Sunkesula near Nagarjunasagar.
An amount of ₹ 5,225 crore is proposed towards crop loan waiver and ₹14,800 crore for the investment support scheme for agriculture `Rytu Bandhu’. Electricity subsidy was proposed for barbers’ saloons. Toilets for women were proposed in police stations and universities.
Interest-free loans will be extended to women self-help groups to the extent of ₹ 3,000 crore.
Irrigation sector will get ₹16,931 crore and social security pensions ₹11,728 crore. The targeted expenditure on double bed room houses of government was ₹ 11,000 crore. The government noted that financial assistance to enable people construct double bed room houses in their own land was proposed last year but it had to be postponed due to economic crisis on account of the pandemic.
The budget presentation by Mr. Rao expected the per capita income of the State to grow by 0.6 % this year compared to 2020-21. The government hoped to generate revenue receipts of ₹ 1.76 lakh crore from share of Central taxes to the tune of ₹ 13,990 crore (in 2020-21 it was ₹ 11,731 crore), tax revenue of ₹ 92,910 crore (76,195 crore), non-tax revenue of ₹ 30,557 crore (₹ 19,305 crore) and grants-in-aid of ₹ 38,669 crore (₹ 10,525 crore).
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