With the Central government presenting the interim budget for 2019-20 on Friday, the buzz is back again on the budget to be presented by the Telangana government — the timing and who will anchor it — now that it is more or less certain that it is going to be a vote-on-account budget.
All these questions have been doing the rounds in the government corridors as the vote-on-account budget will seek to get approval for expenditure to be incurred for the next six months. The full budget is to be presented only after the next Union government unveil the same after the General Elections.While the Centre’s budget will be presented by Power and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal in place of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who has gone to the USA for medical treatment, the suspense continues here as there is no designated Finance Minister. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has inducted a lone Minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali as Home Minister, so far, and the much awaited Cabinet expansion is still under wraps.
Official sources speculate that the budget session of State Assembly will be held before the issuance of notification for the Lok Sabha elections and several options are now doing the rounds like Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao himself may present the interim budget if the cabinet expansion does not take place and Mr. Ali would deliver the address as the leader of the House in the Legislative Council.
Hands-on
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao, in any case, keeps himself abreast of State Finances and is always hands on with the real time fiscal data and tax revenue growth as well as non tax revenue plus Central grants. Therefore, presenting the interim budget if need be is not such a big task, they added. One should not be surprised if Chief Minister retains Finance portfolio with himself even if the Cabinet is expanded before the session.
