HYDERABAD: During the presentation of the Budget on Thursday, Finance Minister E Rajender said that Telangana’s economy has grown bigger. “There is a perceptible increase in growth from year to year,” Rajender said. The growth at constant prices improved from 5.4 per cent in 2013-14 to 6.8 per cent in 2014-15 and this improvement continued in all the succeeding years. “The growth rates in 2015-16 and 2016-17 were 8.6 per cent and 10.1 per cent respectively. During the current year 2017-18, the economy of Telangana is estimated to grow at 10.4 per cent in real terms as compared with the national GDP growth of 6.6 per cent. The higher GSDP growth in Telangana is noteworthy,” the Finance Minister said.
The State’s GSDP at current prices, which was Rs 6,41,985 crore in 2016-17 is estimated to increase to Rs 7,32,657 crore. The per capita income of the State at current prices is estimated to increase by 13.4 per cent from Rs 1,54,734 in 2016-17 to Rs 1,75,534 in 2018-19. This is significantly higher than the national growth of 8.6 per cent.“Despite the fallout of demonetisation and initial problems associated with the introduction of GST, the own tax revenue of the State registered an impressive growth of 18.25 per cent in the 11 months of the 2017-18 fiscal year as compared with the tax collections in the corresponding period last year,” the States fiscal policy stated.
Based on the double-digit growth of the State economy, own tax revenue in 2018-19 is budgeted at Rs 73,751.88 crore as against the 2017-18 budget estimates of Rs 62,619 crore. “State’s GST collections are expected to be very good in 2018-19,” the Finance Minister said. He, however, was not happy with the Centre’s non-cooperation in releasing funds for Mission Bhagiratha, Mission Kakatiya and Kaleshwaram irrigation projects.
Telangana top among 15 States in allocations to four key sectors
Four key sectors have been allocated 36 per cent of the total estimated expenditure in the State’s budget for 2018-19. Irrigation, agriculture, health and education sectors would get majority of the allocations. Thus, TS stands top among 15 states in allocating major funds to these key sectors.
“We are spending 25 per cent of the budget estimates on irrigation and agriculture including power subsidy to farm sectors,” Finance Minister E Rajender said here on Thursday. For Education, 8.2 per cent of the total budget was allocated. But, the allocation to education sectors was almost half of the average expenditure share allocated to education by 18 other states. Between 2016-17 and 2018-19, there is a gradual decrease in the spending on education from 10.6 per cent to 8.2 per cent, according to the PRS Legislative Research, a non-profit organisation.
The State has allocated 4.22 per cent of its total expenditure on health, which is marginally lower than the average expenditure of 18 other states. However, the overall spending on health has been increased from 4.3 per cent in 2016-17 to 4.7 per cent in 2018-19. The state has allocated 10.9 per cent of it budget towards agriculture and allied activities. This is higher than the allocations of 18 other states (6.4 per cent). In 2016-17 and 2017-18, spending on agriculture was 5.9 per cent of the total budget. Telangana has allocated 14.3 per cent of its expenditure on irrigation. This is significantly higher than the average (4.9 per cent) of the 18 other states, as per PRS Legislative Research.
Job Creation
The State government has so far filled 27,588 vacant posts in the government, whereas it created 4.47 lakh jobs in private sector in the past four year, said Finance Minister E Rajender.
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