HYDERABAD: When it comes to expenditure on education, the ‘rich’ Telangana stands last among all states in the country. According to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) report on ‘State Finances - A study of Budgets’, Telangana’s expenditure on education, as ratio to aggregate expenditure, is just 5.9 per cent in 2021-22 (BE) and 7.1 in 2020-21 (RE).
In both these years, Telangana stood number one from the bottom of the list. Ironically, its expenditure on education fell from 11.2 per cent in 2014-15 to 5.5 per cent in 2021-22. In 2014-15, Telangana’s expenditure on education, as ratio to aggregate expenditure, was 11.2 per cent and it became 10.9 in 2015-16. In both these years too, the State stood last. In 2016-17, its expenditure percentage on education was 10 per cent and stood second from the bottom.
In 2017-18, it became 10.4 per cent and then dropped to 8.7 per cent in 2018-19. The percentage then saw a minor rise in 2019-20 (8.8%). In all these years, the State stood in the last position among all States and UTs in the country.
Health not a concern either
While the expenditure on medical and public health and family welfare, as ratio to aggregate expenditure was 4.1 in 2014-15, it went down to 3.9 in 2015-16, 4.1 in 2016-17, 4.2 in 2017-18, 4.0 in 2018-19, 4.3 in 2019-20, 3.4 in 2020-21 and 2.5 in 2021-22. In 2021-22, the expenditure percentage of TS in aggregate expenditure on health is the lowest among all States and UTs.
The national average expenditure percentage on health during this period is 5.5. With regard to the maturity profile of outstanding loans, while 3.4 per cent of loans would be matured within a year, 0.9 per cent loans in one to three years, 14.5 per cent in three to five years, 20.2 per cent in five to seven years and 61 per cent after seven years.
Development expenditure sees rise
The report stated that the development expenditure increased from Rs 97,216 crore in 2019-20 (accounts) to Rs 1,25,612.8 crore in 2020-21 (revised estimates) and then to Rs 1,72,877.5 crore in 2021-22 (budget estimates). The outstanding liabilities is Rs 2,25,418 crore and outstanding guarantees Rs 1,05,006.7 crore.