VIJAYAWADA: Stating that the Centre is yet to give Rs 12,000 crore towards revenue deficit to the State, Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu has said the State budget for the 2018-19 fiscal would be surplus by over Rs 5,000 crore once it gets the respective funds.
Asserting that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) calculated the revenue deficit to the State at Rs 16,000 crore, he took exception to the Centre’s response that they have already given around Rs 4,000 crore and the State could only get another Rs 138 crore.
Giving his reply on the budget in the AP Legislative Council on Tuesday, Yanamala launched a broadside against the Centre. Alleging that the BJP government at the Centre is ignoring the promises made to the State under the AP State Reorganisation Act 2014, he sought to know whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have confidence in the Act made in Parliament or not.
Refuting the remarks of the opposition that the government could not spend the amount as mentioned in the budget, Yanamala asserted that the government spent more than the budgetary allocations in the last three financial years.
Stating that no government had spent cent per cent budgetary allocations in the combined Andhra Pradesh, he said expenditure would cross the budgetary allocations for the fourth consecutive year in the TDP government of the divided state. He said the government would release all the pending amount to beneficiaries under debt redemption scheme and Dwcra women groups in the 2018-19 fiscal.
Borrowings
L1.48 lakh cr: Borrowing of united AP
As debts divided on the basis on population, AP got more share of borrowing
L10,000 cr - Amount being paid towards interest per year on the debts made before state bifurcation