Hyderabad: A large chunk of funds allocated to various schemes by the state government in Budget 2022-23 remain unused even as the financial year 2022-23 comes to an end on March 31, Friday. Among them are crop loan waiver scheme, Rs 3 lakh financial assistance to poor owning plots to construct houses, Dalit Bandhu, oil palm cultivation, distribution of one lakh bikes to construction labourers, and so on.
The state government sanctioned Rs 17,700 crore for Dalit Bandhu scheme, Rs 12,000 crore for housing, Rs 6,000 crore for crop loan waiver scheme, Rs 1,000 crore for oil palm cultivation, Rs 750 crore for Kaleshwaram tourism circuit, Rs 500 crore for Metro Rail connectivity to Shamshabad airport, Rs 500 crore for Metro Rail connectivity to the Old City, Rs 500 crore for Hyderabad Regional Ring Road, Rs 1,000 crore for sheep distribution, Rs 100 crore for Telangana Mahila University, Rs 100 crore for motorcycles to one lakh construction labourers.
However, these welfare schemes and development programmes failed to take off in 2022-23 due to various reasons. Interestingly, most of these welfare schemes and development programmes figured again in the new Budget for 2023-24 which will come into force from April 1. While the state government remained silent on non-utilisation of funds, official sources in the finance department cite 'fund crunch' as the main reason for several schemes not taking off in 2022-23. They revealed that the state government faced a shortfall of nearly Rs 50,000 crore when compared with its budget estimates for 2022-23.
Finance minister T. Harish Rao presented the Budget 2022-23 in the Assembly in March 2022 for Rs 2.45 lakh crore. However, what the state government earned through all sources, including loans was about Rs 1.95 lakh crore.
The state government had lost nearly Rs 14,000 crore loans due to the restrictions imposed by the Union government on auction of bonds. The state government estimated to obtain Rs 53,970 crore loans in Budget 2022-23 but could raise only Rs 40,150 crore on account of the Centre's restrictions.
The state government's estimates on getting Rs 41,000 crore from the Centre towards grants-in-aid also went haywire as the Centre released only Rs 14,000 crore. The government estimated to mobilise Rs 25,000 crore through sale of lands but it got Rs 17,000 crore.
Despite Rs 50,000 crore shortfall in previous year's Rs 2.45 lakh crore Budget, the state government opted for an even bigger Budget of Rs 2.90 lakh crore Budget for new fiscal 2023-24, allocating funds to practically all of the welfare schemes and development programmes that did not get off the ground last year.
