Hyderabad: Telangana Finance Minister T. Harish Rao on Monday presented a tax-free budget of Rs 2.90 lakh crore for 2023-24, up from Rs 2.56 lakh crore last year.
Presenting the last budget of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government in its present term, he pegged the revenue and capital expenditure at Rs 2.11 lakh crore and Rs 37,525 crore respectively. In FY23, they were at Rs 1.89 lakh crore and Rs 29,724 crore respectively.
“In the Budget 2023-24, the total expenditure proposed is Rs 2,90,396 crore, Revenue Expenditure is Rs 2,11,685 crore and the Capital Expenditure proposed is Rs 37,525 crore,” said Harish Rao presenting his fourth Budget in State Assembly.
The finance minister said with growing consumption and investment levels, GSDP growth in Telangana is poised for higher growth despite the possibility of recession threatening the growth across the globe.
Harish Rao said Telangana achieved significant development within a short period of eight and a half years. He claimed that both in welfare and development, Telangana is a role model for the entire country.
“Despite problems arising out of economic recession and corona pandemic, Telangana has been successful in withstanding their adverse impacts and emerged as a strong economic power. Only the Telangana government has been able to efficiently manage its economy and implement welfare programmes on a large scale even during the crisis period,” he said.
He noted that the average annual GSDP growth rate of the State from 2014-15 to 2019-20 had increased by 13.2 per cent. In the same period, the growth rate of GDP was lower at 10.2 per cent. The corona pandemic severely impacted the world economy. Telangana has recovered from this crisis within a short period and is marching ahead steadily, he said.
“Telangana has created history by recording the highest growth rate of 11.8 per cent in per capita income during the period 2017-18 to 2021-22 among the Southern States. NITI Aayog in its report has observed that Telangana has emerged as one of the fastest growing states, after its formation as a separate state. After the formation of the state, Telangana has been recording higher than GDP growth rate every year,” said Harish Rao.
He said the share of Telangana in GDP improved from 4.1 per cent in 2014-15 to 4.9 per cent in 2020-21. “It is a matter of pride that Telangana is contributing 4.9 per cent to GDP though its share in national population is only 2.9 per cent. In comparison to18 major states in the country, the growth performance of Telangana is impressive. Telangana stands at the third place with an average annual GSDP growth rate of 12.6 per cent from 2015-16 to 2021-22.”
Harish Rao said the per capita income of Telangana is estimated to increase from Rs 1,12,162 in 2013-14 to Rs 3,17,115 in 2022-23. This is higher than the national per capita income of Rs 1,70,620 by 86 per cent. As compared with the national per capita income, per capita income of Telangana is higher by Rs 1,46,495. This is clearly an indication of the significant development of Telangana, he claimed.
By making administration humanitarian, the Government of Telangana has been allocating a lion’s share of its resources to welfare programmes. In a symbolic manner, the previous governments distributed only Rs.200 as monthly pension. Telangana government has increased the Aasara pensions from Rs.200 to Rs.2016. The amount of monthly pension for physically challenged people has been increased to Rs.3,016, the budget speech highlighted.
