KCR finalises strategy to take on BJP in Telangana Assembly

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has decided to hold a week-long Assembly session in December to castigate the ruling BJP at the Centre on a number of issues, most notably the losses incurred by the state as a result of “unnecessary restrictions” imposed by the Modi government in the current fiscal year 2022-23, “ludicrous economic policies” becoming a stumbling block to the future and growth of the states.

According to a media statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) on Thursday, the Centre's “unnecessary sanctions” have resulted in a Rs 40,000 crore loss to the state exchequer in the current financial year 2022-23. The Centre, it claims, is impeding Telangana's development with such measures.

States formulates their budget by taking into consideration the budget figures which are being released by the Centre before every financial year. As is customary, the Centre announced the FRBM limit for each state to mobilise financial resources. The Centre announced a FRBM limit of Rs 54,000 crore for Telangana state in the fiscal year 2022-23. Following this, the Telangana state government has prepared the budget outlay for 2022-23. Meanwhile, the Centre suddenly reduced Telangana's FRBM limit to Rs 39,000 crore. As a result, the Rs 15,000 crore that Telangana was supposed to receive has been reduced.

Apart from this, financially strong states are entitled to avail 0.5% additional fund mobilisation from the FRBM limit. The Telangana state, which is experiencing a robust economic growth, was denied a 0.5% additional loan facility by forcing the state to implement power reforms that are anti-agriculture and anti-farmer, according to a CMO press release.

The CM had made it clear to the Centre that Telangana is willing to bear any hardships, but will not accept the central government's power reforms, which will harm Telangana farmers and the agriculture sector. As a result, the state lost about Rs 6,000 crore. It all amounts the stoppage of Rs 21,000 crore (Rs 15,000 crore reduction in FRBM limit and Rs 6,000 crore through additional mobilisation), which is a significant loss for the state.

In addition, the Centre has halted the release of Rs 20,000 crore in non-budgetary funds to the state. According to the CMO release, Telangana did not receive nearly Rs 40,000 crore due to the central government’s ill-conceived policies and decisions made with complete financial mismanagement.

According to the release, the Centre is undermining federalism by stifling the states' voices and harming the states with politically motivated and vindictive degenerated policies. The Telangana government wishes to bring such irrelevant decisions and matters pursued by the Centre to the attention of the people of the state as well as the people of the country. As part of that, it decided to hold an Assembly session in December and provide complete information to the public, according to the release.