Telangana to Borrow, Sell Land to Keep Stove Burning

Hyderabad: After criticising the previous BRS regime for throwing the otherwise cash-surplus Telangana into a cesspool of debt in the last decade, the Congress government projected a borrowing of Rs 62,000 crore for 2024-25, up by Rs 17,000 crore from the previous fiscal.

The government also made its intention known to sell land for resource mobilisation by making a budgetary provision of Rs 35,208 crore under the head of non-tax revenue, a majority of which comes from sale of land apart from mines and minerals. As the government has to spend more on its poll promises, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, the finance minister, had cut down on the capital expenditure from Rs 44,252 crore last year to Rs 33,486 crore.

A major deviation from the BRS regime, however, is the drastic cut in the projection of grant-in-aid from the Centre, though the projected revenue for this fiscal too is unrealistic and on the higher side. After waging war against the Centre, the BRS government made a budgetary provision of Rs 41,259 cr towards grant-in-aid in its last budget though the state received only Rs 13,179 crore in 2022-23.

According to the revised estimate for the previous financial year, the grants-in-aid the state would be getting from the Centre is just Rs 9,729 crore and yet Bhatti Vikramarka projected Rs 21,636 crore as Central aid for the current year.

With regard to debt, the state government borrowed Rs 40,000 crore from the open markets in 2022-23 and this went up by another Rs 10,000 crore in 2023-24, according to the revised estimates. For the current fiscal, the Congress government wants to borrow Rs 57,000 crore. “After criticising us of reckless borrowing, how can the Congress justify enhancing the loans by another Rs 17,000 crore,” said former finance minister T. Harish Rao.

Speaking to media persons, Bhatti Vikramarka sought to defend the move stating that the borrowings would be within the limits of the Finance Regulation and Budgetary Management Act. “What is wrong in borrowing whatever we are permitted to borrow,” said the finance minister.

Asked whether the government would resort to the sale of land for resource mobilisation, legislative affairs and IT minister D. Sridhar Babu refused to reveal the strategies which, he said, would be brainstormed by the Cabinet sub-committee.

The government also projected Rs 1.38 lakh crore from tax revenue which was Rs 27,000 crore more from the revised estimates of Rs 1.11 lakh crore. The finance minister said that no additional burden would be imposed on the people and that the enhanced revenue would be accrued from plugging leakages.

There will be a marginal increase of Rs 3,000 crore in devolution of Central taxes which is projected to be Rs 26,000 cr this year.