HYDERABAD: Opposition parties had described the Budget presented by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in the State Assembly for the fiscal year 2019-20 on Monday as the one that is far from realty and lacked vision. They claimed that the Budget falls short of both factual representation and fiscal vision for the State.
The Congress, while describing the Budget as far from realty, stated that increasing deficit highlights the lack of financial discipline of the State government. Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka stated that the Budget presented by the chief minister lacks direction and vision. “The Budget clearly shows that there was no scope for fulfilling the promises made by the government to the people of the State,” he stated.
Accusing the chief minister of destroying the financial discipline of the State, the CLP leader alleged that due to the wrong policies of the government, the State had plunged into deep financial crisis.
He said the government had presented a vote-on-account Budget of Rs 1.82 lakh crore and now reduced it to Rs 1.46 lakh crore, which itself indicates the financial position of the State. Vikramarka also opposed the government’s proposal to sell government lands and stated that his party would not allow it to happen. “The TRS government has already pushed the State into a deep debt crisis and now it wants to sell away the government lands to private parties,” he said.
Senior Congress leader and MLC T Jeevan Reddy stated that the Budget had exposed the deficiency of the government’s fiscal discipline. “This is not a budget, but KCR’s ‘failures’ book,” he said. The chief minister tried to put the blame of financial indiscipline on the economic slowdown,” he said and added that half of the Budget estimate is purely dependent on Central assistance and policies.
Congress senior leader and former Leader of Opposition in State Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir alleged that the wrong policies and immature approach of chief minister has shattered the economy of the State. “TRS government never had a realistic approach towards Budget and always presented escalated figures to cheat the people. There was not a single Budget since 2014-15 where actual expenditure matched or even came closer to the estimates mentioned in the Budget speech,” he said.
The BJP described the Budget as a tissue of lies and that it hasn’t highlighted the factual situation of State. The chief minister used the Budget speech to target the Union government to hide his government’s failure, said BJP’s state chief K Laxman.He said the Budget was the reflection of six-year inefficient rule of the TRS government.
Budget session to continue till Sept 22
Hyderabad: As per the tentative schedule fixed at the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) which was held here on Monday, the Budget session of the State Legislative Assembly will continue till September 22. Appropriation Bill will be introduced on the last day. The Budget session of the Assembly will resume regular business on September 14 and debate on the annual financial statement