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The maiden budget session of the Telangana Assembly to be convened from November 5 will provide an opportunity for the K Chandrasekhar Rao Government to outline the development agenda amidst several contentious inter-State issues.
A decision to convene the Assembly was finalised during late on Friday evening.
The session being held after couple of postponements is also likely to be stormy as it comes at time when the two new states of Telangana and residual Andhra Pradesh have several inter-State issues that need to be resolved. Both the States do not see eye to eye on many issues, particularly sharing of power and water resources, fee reimbursement for students among various other concerns.
The State Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had constituted 14 task force teams to facilitate the budget making process with the objective of outlining the Government agenda for the next five years rather than drafting a Budget for the remaining part of the year.
The interim Budget to be presented by the Finance Minister Etela Rajender will be first budget for the new State. Thus far, the Budget allocations have been based on vote-on-account passed by the unified Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly before the general elections and the bifurcation of the State.
During the recent Finance Commission meetings, the State has indicated the tax collections so far have not been as per initial projections post the division. There is also growing concern about small and medium companies registering their offices in AP, leading to loss of tax collection.
The opposition parties, the Congress, Telugu Desam Party are seeking to corner the Government particularly with regard to severe power crisis the State is faced with. The opposition is gearing up to expose the State in the way it has handled the farm sector issues and supply of power where industries are faced with two day power holiday per week and domestic and commercial consumers are faced with huge power cuts.
Among other issues that are likely to be taken up during the Budget session include the crop loan waiver estimated to be about Rs 20,000 crore. The task force teams have come up with their suggestions to ensure inclusive growth by taking the feedback from the grassroot level.
While the session focus would be on budget and its proposals, the issues of power and water sharing between the two states will be among key areas where the opposition parties would like to corner the treasury benches.
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