HYDERABAD: Describing the Andhra Pradesh budget 2014-15 presented by Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu on Wednesday as a great disappointment, YSR Congress chief and Opposition leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said the budget would further push the State backwards and ruin the economy.
At a time when the State was passing through a difficult phase the people of the State are expecting a budget which would bail the State out of the present crisis but to their disappointment the budget had turned out to be weak and directionless, he alleged. “It has failed everybody’s expectations and all the sections of people are deeply disappointed.”
After the bifurcation, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had consistently assured the people that waiver of all agriculture and Dwcra loans would be done immediately but the issue was left untouched in the budget. The plan expenditure is an indication that the State would be moving on the path of development but surprisingly the State has reduced the plan expenditure from 36 per cent to 24 per cent.
Jagan said the government has even reduced the capital expenditure from 12 per cent to 6.3 per cent which meant that there would be a fall in the State’s GDP. Moreover, the central tax share of the State would fall drastically as the major source of revenue, Hyderabad, is now part of Telangana.
Jagan wondered how the state government was going to bring Rs 29,000 crore as grant-in-aid from the Centre when never in the history of the State has it got so much of funds in the form of a grant. He said during YSR’s rule, the housing sector was allocted Rs 7,000-8,000 crore every year but now only Rs 800 crore has been allocated.
No Clarity on Loan Repayment
TDP came to power by promising that it woud waive all crop loans and Dwcra loans. Surprisingly, there is no mention in the budget as to how the government would implement these promises effectively. The budget has not given any clarity on how the government would repay the loan amount to banks. The budget has equally failed to mention about the new capital and allocations for its construction, pointed out Jagan Mohan Reddy.