Telangana Government presents State Budget with total outlay of ₹2.91 lakh crore  

Telangana State Government presents ₹2.91 lakh crore Budget for FY 2024-25, focusing on agriculture, welfare, and development.

The Telangana State Government has presented ₹2.91 lakh crore Budget for the Financial Year 2024-25 with emphasis on welfare and development of agriculture and allied sectors.

Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka introduced the Budget in the Assembly on July 25 with estimated revenue expenditure of ₹2.2 lakh crore and capital expenditure of ₹33,487 crore. The State’s economy continued to depend on the borrowings as could be seen from the public debt estimates placed at ₹62,112 crore for the fiscal and the debt repayment component amounting to ₹17,101 crore.

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The Budget has special focus on a few sectors, the major being agriculture, which secured major portion of the overall allocations. Agriculture for instance was allocated the lion’s share of ₹72,569 crore, one-fourth of the total outlay followed by Scheduled Caste Development (₹33,124 crore) and Scheduled Tribe Development (₹17,056 crore) contributing little more than ₹50,000 crore taking the total allocations to the three sectors to ₹1.22 lakh crore of the total outlay.

As expected, the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department was given Budgetary allocation of ₹29,816 crore indicating the Government’s focus on the development of rural areas. Irrigation Department was allocated ₹22,301 crore indicating the Government’s priority of taking up projects that could be completed with lesser expenditure and Education too was given equal priority with allocation of ₹21,292 crore. Energy Department with ₹16,410 crore and Medical and Health Department with ₹11,468 crore are other major departments which secured huge allocations.

For the twin cities, the Government allocated ₹10,000 crore for GHMC and HMDA and another ₹1,525 crore for development of regional ring road during the current fiscal while ₹9,654 crore was proposed to be allocated to the Home Department. The Finance Minister presented the Budget, the first full Budget of the Congress Government after a decade with ₹297 crore revenue surplus and fiscal deficit of ₹49,255 crore. The primary deficit estimated in the budget is ₹31,525 crore

On the revenue front, the Government has estimated own tax revenue of ₹1.38 lakh crore and non-tax revenue of ₹35,208 crore while the State’s share of central taxes is expected to be ₹26,216 crore. The Government projected the grants in aid and contributions from the Central Government at ₹21,636 crore. Though lower than the projections made by the previous BRS Government which estimated ₹41,259 crore under the head against the actuals of ₹9,729 crore, doubts persist over whether the State could get the projected amount.