No hike in AP Budget outlay this year
State finance managers suggested an outlay less than the previous fiscal\'s 2.27 lakh crore
Hyderabad: Adopting a pragmatic approach, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will abandon the decades-old tradition of jacking up the annual budget outlay over the previous year unmindful of the reality of never reaching anywhere near the target.
Indeed, for 2020-2021 fiscal, for which the regular budget would be presented by finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy on Tuesday, the State finance managers suggested an outlay less than the previous fiscal's `2.27 lakh crore, according to sources.
The suggestion was made keeping in view the harsh reality that the total expenditure for 2019-2020 did not cross `1.50 lakh crore against an outlay of Rs 2.27 lakh crore. The state's revenues for 2019-2020 also stood at `1.55 lakh crore which is 38 per cent short of the targeted revenues of `2.14 lakh crore. The situation has further worsened in the first quarter of the current financial year due to the unprecedented crisis arising out of Covid-19.
"This will leave us with two options - continue with inflated budget like Mr Chandrababu Naidu used to do, or make realistic projections even at the cost of criticism that we brought down the budget outlay from the previous year," a senior ruling YSR Congress leader pointed out.
The Telugu Desam government presented an election budget in 2018-2019 anticipating revenue of `1.80 lakh crore, which is 31 per cent over the actual revenue realised in the previous fiscal. The state, however, achieved `1.50 lakh crore, falling 17 per cent short of the target.
Fresh from the remarkable victory of securing 151 out of 175 seats, Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, eager to launch a welfare blitzkrieg, forced `2.27 lakh crore outlay. The YSRC government anticipated revenue of `2.14 lakh crore.
But, by March 31, 2020, the state revenues realised was only `1.55 lakh crore which is just 3.3 per cent over the previous year's actual revenues realised, and a whopping 27 per cent short of the target. The tax revenues for 2019-2020 stood at `85,843 crore, Central grants at `21,875 crore and borrowings at `40,400 crore. As much as 25 per cent of the state's revenues are from borrowings only.
On the expenditure side, salaries cost `36,179 crore, debt servicing `16,392 crore and subsidies `6,269 crore.