TS govt\'s 10 budgets in last 9 years: Targets met only twice

Hyderabad: The BRS government has presented 10 budgets in the Telangana Legislative Assembly since the formation of the state in 2014 with the Budgetary allocations increasing year after year. Only twice in the past nine years has the state government been able to meet its Budget Estimates (BE), and the gap between revised estimates and actual expenditures has been widening every year, demonstrating the need for the government to come up with more realistic estimates of annual spending.

The TRS (now BRS) government presented the 2014-15 budget with a total outlay of Rs 1,00,637 crore; the revised estimates were also the same; however, the actual spending was only Rs 62,306 crore, leaving a shortfall of around Rs 38,000 crore. Budgeted spending for 2015-16 was Rs 1,15,689 crore; revised estimates reduced that to Rs 1,00,061 crore, while actual spending was even lower at Rs 97,922 crore.

However, in 2016-17, the state government created a record by spending more than the budget estimates. The budget was presented with an outlay of Rs 1,30,415 crore, which was reduced to Rs 1,12,191 crore in the revised estimates, while the actual spending was Rs 1,33,823 crore. In 2017-18, it was back to square one when the budget size was Rs 1,49,646 crore, which was slashed to Rs 1,42,985 crore in revised estimates and the actual spending was Rs 1,43,133 crore. The budget for 2018–19 was increased to Rs 1,74,453 crore, then slashed to Rs 1,61,223 crore, with actual spending coming in at Rs 1,57,150 crore.

In 2019-20, the state government repeated the feat of spending more than budget estimates. The budget was presented for Rs 1,46,544 crore, which was later revised down to Rs 1,42,152 crore but the actual spending was Rs 1,80,104 crore. For 2020-21, the budget was presented with an outlay of Rs 1,82,914 crore, which was slashed to Rs 1,66,728 crore, and the actual spending was Rs 1,57,547 crore. Budget outlay for 2021–22 reached the Rs 2 lakh crore mark for the first time at Rs 2,30,725 crore, but was reduced to Rs 2,09,982 crore and spending was even much lower at Rs 1,82,997 crore, a significant difference of about Rs 48,000 crore.

In 2022-23, the budget outlay was Rs 2,56,858 crore and it was subsequently slashed to Rs 2,37,611 crore. The data on actual spending is awaited. For the new fiscal 2023-24, the government presented a 'jumbo budget' for Rs 2,90,296 crore. It remains to be seen how far the government succeeds in meeting this huge target which will be known only next year when the budget for 2024-25 will be presented in March 2024 after December 2018 Assembly polls.