Telangana finance minister T Harish Rao on Thursday presented the annual budget of the state for 2021-22 at an outlay of Rs 2.30 lakh crore, with a projected revenue surplus of Rs 6,743 crore.
The outlay for this year budget is a record jump of nearly 63 per cent over the revised estimates of Rs 1.46 lakh crore for 2020-21.
The minister said despite massive drain in the state exchequer due to Covid-19, the state government continued to give priority to both welfare of the people and development of the state.
The revenue expenditure is estimated at over Rs 1.69 lakh crore while the capital expenditure would be Rs 29,046.77 crore. The fiscal deficit has been placed at Rs 45,509.60 crore.
Harish announced that due to the proactive measures of the government, the primary sector comprising agriculture and allied sectors had registered 17.7 per cent growth in 2020-21.
The secondary and service sectors recorded a negative growth of 5.2 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively. Compared to the negative growth of 3.8 per cent growth in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the country due to the adverse impact of the pandemic, the State recorded a positive growth of 1.3 per cent in GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product), he said.
The important scheme announced by the state government in this budget was the Chief Minister’s Dalit Empowerment Programme at an allocation of Rs 1,000 crore.
Harish said the chief minister conceived the new scheme for the all-round development of Scheduled Castes in the State.
“The architect of Indian Constitution Dr B R Ambedkar had observed that only those people who are committed to their goals will be able to lead the society towards progress, and the Chief Minister’s endeavour in bringing in the new scheme has been to make these words a reality,” he said, adding that Rs 1,000 crore has been allocated for the proposed scheme in this year’s budget.
These benefits will accrue to the Scheduled Castes with the launch of the new programme, he added.
Some of the major allocations for the welfare schemes are: Rs 2,750 crore for Kalyan Lakshmi/Shadi Mubarak, Rs 21.306.85 crore for special component for SCs, Rs 12,304.23 crore for special component for STs, Rs 338 crore for weavers’ welfare and Rs 5,522 crore for BC welfare.
