Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will present the full-fledged Budget for the financial year 2019-20 in the Assembly at 11.30 am today. Though T Harish Rao has assumed charge as the Finance Minister on Sunday, the Chief Minister himself will present the Budget in the Assembly. Harish Rao will present the Budget in the Legislative Council.
With a bleak economic scenario, the State Government expects a lower growth rate in revenue receipts. As a result, the size of the Budget is likely to be pared and pegged at about ₹ 1.70 lakh crore.
The vote-on-account pegged the total expenditure in 2019-20 at ₹1,82,017 crore. Of this, revenue expenditure would be ₹1,31,629 crore and capital expenditure would be ₹32,815 crore. In 2019-20, the estimated revenue surplus is ₹6,564 crore and fiscal deficit is ₹27,749 crore.
Chandrashekar Rao kept the Finance portfolio with himself after shifting Eatala Rajender, who held the Finance Ministry in his maiden Cabinet, to the Health Ministry.
The TRS Government presented a Vote-on-Account Budget on February 23 this year, after voted back to power in December 2018. With no clarity available on the fund flow from the Central pool, the State Government chose to present a Vote-on-Account Budget Budget.
“The Union Government introduced a Vote-on-Account budget for the next year. There is no clarity as to what the priorities for expenditure would be, policies, centrally sponsored schemes etc. Once the full budget is introduced, then only there would be clarity in these matters,” KCR had said while presenting the Vote-on-Account budget for the State.
The growth of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at current prices went up from 14.2 per cent in 2016-17 to 14.3 per cent in 2017-18. The GSDP of the State during 2018-19 was estimated at ₹8,66,875 crore.