Tahsildar Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Finance in Telangana State, takes a picture with CM Revanth Reddy at the Assembly before presenting the State Budget on July 25th.
The Financial Year 2024-25 has seen the Government of Telangana present a budget of Rs.2.91 lakh crore emphasizing on welfare and development of agriculture and allied sectors.
On July 25th, Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka introduced his budget in the Assembly. It was estimated about ₹2.2 lakh crore would be spent as revenue while an approximate capital expenditure projection amounted to ₹33,487 crore. As could be gauged from public debt figures that were placed at ₹62,112 crore for this year-end fiscal period with debt repayment being ₹17,101 crore it was apparent that the state’s economy continued to borrow.
Some sectors have been given priority by this Budget which has allocated major portion of its overall estimate to agriculture. A fourth dispatching share of total outlay went into Agriculture (₹72,569 cr), followed by Scheduled Caste Development (₹33,124 cr) and Scheduled Tribe Development (₹17,056 cr) that three together exceeded over ₹50,000 crores thus making up more than one Lakh twenty two thousand crores outlay.
As expected Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department received ₹29,816 crore as budget allocation indicating Government’s focus on rural development. The Irrigation Department got an allocation of (₹22,301cr) pointing towards Government’s preference for projects that can be concluded within lesser cost implications whereas Education came second after it receiving an allocation of (₹21,292cr). Other major departments with high allocations include Energy Department (₹16.41 billion) and Medical & Health Department (₹11.47 billion).
These sections were able to raise ₹10,000 crore for GHMC and HMDA besides an additional ₹1,525 crore for the development of regional ring road in this fiscal alone whereas Home Department was supposed to get 9,654 crores illion as proposed by the finance minister. This budget, the first complete one of a Congress government in over a decade has come with a revenue surplus estimate of ₹297 crore and fiscal deficit of ₹49.255 crore; the primary deficit is estimated at ₹31,525 cr.
In terms of revenue, personal tax revenues amounting to Rs.1.38 lakh crore are expected from own sources while non-tax sources should amount to Rs.35,208 crores approximately; the state’s share of central taxes will be about Rs.26,216 crores as per estimation made by government. The grants in aid and contributions from Central Government have been projected at about ₹21,636 crore out of which funds allocated under this head during BRS regime had come up higher than actuals at ₹41,259 cr against realized amounts worth just above 9 thousand crores raising concerns whether the State can get that much or not.
It is hoped that despite economic pressures on the nation’s finances these would be met through State Excise which provides for revenues worth a total sum of ₹25,617 crores during this period under view it also surpasses any earlier estimate for fiscal year 2023-24 that stood at ₹20.30 billion resulting into financials achieved as 18 billion rupees instead in revised estimates thereof so far by 2023-24 thus exceeding ₦15bn marginally by nearly four thousand rupees.
The Stamps and Registration Department has been predicted here too with revenue realization being expected at approximately ₦18,244cr as opposed to ₦14,297cr of 2023-24 revised estimates.
Revenue collection from sales and trade taxes has increased by ₹11,000 crore to ₹68,273 crore from the previous fiscal’s ₨ 57,394crore. This includes revenue from sales and trade taxes which have gone up from ₨ 29,989crore to ₨ 33,449crore. Non-tax sources of general services income are estimated at a figure close to Rs 25,817 crores this being approximately Rs9,000 crores more than the revised estimates for last year of Rs 16,852 crore.
