Telangana’s debt has gone up ten-fold in the last 10 years from Rs 75,577 in 2014 at the time of formation of the state to Rs 6.71 lakh crore in 2023-24, the state Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said on Wednesday while presenting the Budget.
Vikramarka, who also holds the finance portfolio, presented the Rs 2,91,159 crore Budget focusing on agriculture and welfare schemes. The proposed revenue expenditure for this fiscal is Rs 2.20 lakh crore and the capital expenditure is Rs 33,487 crore.
“The state’s debts grew by leaps and bounds but there was no commensurate development,” he said.
It was a “major challenge” for the Congress government that came to power last December to bring the state’s “frivolous expenditure” under control and streamline salaries to the state’s 3.69 lakh government employees and 2.87 lakh pensioners from March this year, Vikramarka said.
“This was a first baby step for a better administration. Since the formation of our government, we have raised loans of Rs 35,118 crore, whereas we have repaid loans of Rs 42,892 crore.
We have spent Rs 34,579 crore on various schemes from December to date, offered free travel for women in government buses, free electricity up to 200 units, assistance to farmers under Rythu Bharosa, subsidy on rice, etc., apart from the expenditure on schemes we have also made a capital expenditure of Rs.19,456 crore,’’ he said.
Reiterating his government’s resolve to create new government jobs, Vikramarka said that appointment orders for 31,768 jobs have been issued so far.
Hailing the budget as “welfare and farmer friendly”, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said a major share of the funds was allocated to Agriculture and allied sectors — including a farm loan waiver of Rs 2 lakh.
The government allocated Rs 72,659 crore to agriculture; Rs 33,124 crore for SC welfare; Rs 29,816 crore for rural development; Rs 22,301 crore for irrigation projects; Rs 16,410 crore for power companies and distribution companies; and Rs 17,056 crore for ST welfare; Rs 9,200 crore for backward classes welfare; Rs 11,468 crore for medical and health; Rs 5,790 crore for roads and buildings department, Rs 9,564 crore for police and home department; Rs 2,762 crore for industries and Rs 774 crore for IT; and Rs 2,736 crore for women and child welfare.
A total of Rs 1,064 crore has been earmarked for forest and environment, Rs 10,000 crore for development of Hyderabad and Rs 1,525 crore to develop the Region Ring Road around Hyderabad. The government has also set aside Rs 723 crore has been set aside for providing LPG cylinders at Rs 500 and Rs 2,418 crore to provide free electricity up to 200 units and Rs 3,003 crore for Minority welfare.
Talking about Telangana’s progress, Vikramarka said that 10 years into its existence, the state hasn’t progressed as expected. The previous government under K. Chandrashekar Rao who promised to transform Telangana into “Bangaru (golden) Telangana” failed miserably on all fronts, he said.
“The state was administered like an estate of a private landlord. A bountiful state at the time of bifurcation was reduced to a pathetic state on account of the huge loan burden,’’ he claimed, adding that while maintaining strict fiscal discipline, the Congress government also proved wrong all the critics who said that it cannot deliver on its election promises.
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