Focus shifts to Telangana budget 2026-27 preparation as din over municipal polls subsides

Telangana's budget preparation for 2026-27 begins, focus likely to be on allocations to housing, bonus to farmers, free bus for women and Congress six guarantees

As the din over the elections to Telangana Urban Local Bodies (ULB) — taken as a prestige by major political parties — subsides, the focus now shifts to the budget, the annual financial statement, for the financial year 2026-27.

Deputy Chief Minister, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, has decided to hold a series of meetings to assess the requirements of individual departments so that sufficient allocations can be made for the effective implementation of ongoing schemes. The department wise meetings slated to start from February 16 will continue for about a week after which the Deputy Chief Minister will hold discussions with Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy to finalise the probable dates for the commencement of the budget session, likely to March first week.

The State Government has decided to tread cautiously on finalisation of allocations as it found no major gains for the State in the recently introduced Union budget. It has reportedly decided to rationalise allocations to non-core sectors while laying emphasis on fulfilment of its six guarantees — the promise the Congress has given to people in the run up to the 2023 Assembly elections.

The Chief Minister is understood to have directed the officials concerned to ensure that the allocations as well as the total outlay are realistic without giving scope for shortfall in tax revenues/receivables from the Centre. Revenue realisation during the current fiscal till December end was ₹1.9 lakh crore, 67.01% of the ₹2.84 lakh crore projected in the budget estimates and a major chunk, one third, of the receipts was in the form of borrowings of ₹65,930 crore.

Tax revenues were ₹1.13 lakh crore till the end of third quarter, against ₹1.75 lakh crore of the budget estimates and officials are confident that tax revenues will improve significantly in the last quarter taking the revenue receipts in excess of 80% of the projections. Given this background, the outlay for 2026-27 could be of the order of ₹3.15 lakh crore to ₹3.22 lakh crore factoring in inflation and other factors against the ₹3.04 lakh crore of the current fiscal.

The focus is likely to be on ensuring adequate allocations for Indiramma houses, bonus to farmers cultivating fine rice and free bus travel to women.