Bhatti says Budget figures highly suspicious, unrealistic

Hyderabad: Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has objected to the state government projecting “higher and unrealistic” estimates on tax, non-tax revenues and Central grants in the Budget.

He said these targets were impossible to realise and the state government did this just for the sake of presenting a “jumbo budget” of Rs 2.90 lakh crore without taking ground realities into consideration.

Participating in the debate on the Budget in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, he said the Budget figures are “highly suspicious”.

“Revenue receipts were shown at Rs 2.16 lakh crore and the state’s own tax revenue was shown at Rs 1.31 lakh crore. This is Rs 40,000 crore higher than the previous year. How will you realise these additional tax collections? Are you planning to impose fresh taxes on people? The government should clarify these issues.”

Bhatti also questioned the rationale behind projecting the Centre’s grants-in-aid at Rs 41,259 crore and the state’s share in Central taxes at Rs 21,470 crore.

“The reality is the state was not getting even Rs 10,000 crore grants from the Centre every year. This shows that the state has overstated a total of Rs 70,000 crore in estimates just for the sake of presenting a jumbo budget of Rs 2.90 lakh crore,” Bhatti stated.

He accused the state government of pushing the state into a debt trap by resorting to indiscriminate borrowings.

“The Budget has proposed to raise Rs 46,317 crore through open market loans this year. This will take total open market loans to Rs 3.57 lakh crore. An additional Rs 1.29 lakh crore was mobilised through corporations for which the state government is the guarantor. The overall debt burden has nearly touched Rs 5 lakh crore.”

Bhatti also rubbished the state government’s claims of per capita income of Telangana witnessed a steep increase in the last eight years. “Only the wealth of a few individuals and families in the state have multiplied due to which the GSDP has increased. The government is dividing this GSDP among four crore population in the state and projecting as if the income of every person has increased in the state.”