Congress, BJP want reality check on budget estimates

The Congress and the BJP have suggested the government to do a reality check of the budget estimates presented in the Legislative Assembly earlier this week, stating that they were unrealistic and far-fetched.

Participating in the general discussion on the budget on Saturday, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramark observed that priority sectors, which drive sustainable development such as education, health, roads and buildings and rural development, are one Short spaced. The budget allocated was not enough.

Giving some examples of neglect of priority sectors, Mr. Vikramark pointed out that against the national average of 15.9% allocation for education, the proposed share for the sector was only 6.8% in the current budget of Telangana. Similarly, the health sector was given only 3% against the national average of 5.5% of the budget, despite the COVID epidemic.

He said a raw deal was also awarded for roads and buildings – 2.6% in Telangana against the national average of 4.3% – and for rural development – 3.4% in the state against 6.1% nationally. He also pointed out that unemployment was also faster in the state as it was 8.4% in Telangana, as compared to 5.8% nationally, according to the 2019 Periodic Labor Force Survey.

Expressing concern over the outstanding increase in public debt, the Congress member said that it was Rs.2,86,804 crore as mentioned in the budget documents as well as state guaranteed loans of more than ₹ 1.05 lakh crore making it approximately 92 3.30. Will be lakh crores. He said that it was expected to take it beyond ₹ 5 lakh crore in the next two years due to increase in public debt at alarming level.

Expressing similar views, BJP’s M. Raghunandan Rao tried to find out how the government reduced the principal repayment of debt to ₹ 9,139 crore in 2021, while 90 45,790 crore was repaid in 2019-20. The provision of interest payment in 2019-2022 was ₹ 17,584 crore as against 14,586 crore and was repaid in 2019-20. He suggested the government to promise unemployment allowance, construction of four new super specialty hospitals around the city, ₹ 100 crore.