With budget session announcement, focus is now on budget outlay 

Budget outlay likely to be higher than current fiscal

As the stage is being set for the commencement of the budget session of the Legislature, the focus is now on the size of the budget and priorities of the government for the next financial year.

The budget outlay for the next fiscal is expected to be on the lines of the current fiscal’s ₹2.3 lakh or could be higher, but officials remained tight-lipped when asked about the size of the budget. Relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions to a large extent as result of which activities are fast returning to normalcy and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s assurance of annual budgetary allocation of ₹ 20,000 crore for the ambitious Dalit Bandhu from the next fiscal are indicative of a higher outlay for the next fiscal.

Coupled with this is the fact that this will be the last full-fledged budget to be presented by the TRS government in its second term. The term of the current assembly is scheduled to end in December next year and hence, the government is expected to confine itself to present vote on account budget for the first nine months of the next fiscal.

A look at the allocations for the current fiscal will reveal that a major portion of the budget has been earmarked for key sectors like payment of salaries/wages and pensions, debt servicing and subsidies to power and other sectors. Of these, payment of salaries/wages and pensions alone is around ₹37,000 crore, thanks to the implementation of revised pay scales to all categories of the employees. Expenditure on interest payment was pegged at ₹17,584 crore for the current year and the expenditure on revenue accounts has been estimated at ₹1.02 lakh crore out of the total revenue expenditure estimated at ₹1.69 lakh crore for the current fiscal. Several sectors including the GST, sales tax, excise duties and registration and stamps performed well, consistently remaining on course of achieving the targets set for them, during the first nine months of the current fiscal.

The government’s estimates on non-tax revenue and receipts in the form of grants in aid and contributions, however, did not materialize as both the sectors did not cross 20% of the targets set for them till the end of December quarter. The government is reported to be working out modalities for announcing a new and comprehensive mining policy to give boost to non-tax revenues from the next fiscal.