HYDERABAD: Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka will be mainly focusing on welfare and developmental programmes when he presents his second full Budget in the State Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
As the Budget 2024–25 is likely to be downsized by around Rs 70,000 crore, it remains to be seen if the size of the 2025–26 Budget will cross the Rs 3,00,000 crore mark or not.
For 2024–25, Vikramarka presented the Budget with an outlay of Rs 2.91 lakh crore. However, the state government was compelled to downsize the Budget by Rs 70,000 crore as it did not receive the expected revenues. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy himself revealed this a few days ago. The CM said that Vikramarka presented a realistic Budget for 2024–25 and blamed the previous BRS government for poor revenue collections.
The main reason for the downward revision is that the government banked much on the Central grants and auction of government lands. The state government estimated it would get Rs 21,636.15 crore grant-in-aid and contributions from the Central government. However, till January, the state received only Rs 5,176.72 crore, which was 23.93 per cent of the estimated revenue.
On the other hand, the government also estimated that it would get around Rs 30,000 crore through auction of government lands. As in previous years, the government could not sell the lands.
The total revenue receipts of the government for 2024–25 were estimated to be Rs 2,21,242.23 crore but it realised only Rs 1,23,815.60 crore – 55.96 per cent of the estimated revenues.
Every year, there is usually an incremental hike of around 15 to 20 per cent in Budget size. However, it remains to be seen if Vikramarka uses the likely revised estimates of Rs 2.21 lakh crore or the original estimates of Rs 2.91 lakh crore as base for the normal incremental hike for next year estimates.
The challenges before Vikramarka are the demand from state government employees to implement Pay Revision Commission recommendations, implementation of pending assurances, and paying the interest and principal amounts of the debts.
Though the state government planned to hike the stamps and registration charges to augment its revenues, it did not take a decision on the report submitted by the officials so far. The Finance minister may take a decision to revise the registration charges in the next Budget.
Funds for Musi project
In Budget 2025–26, the state government is likely to balance the allocations for welfare and developmental works. This Budget is likely to allocate funds for schemes like the Musi Rejuvenation Project and Hyderabad Metro Phase 2 project, which were proposed after presenting the Budget 2024–25. The government is also likely to allocate funds for the construction of Regional Ring Road (RRR) as it considers the project a game changer. The R&B department has sought Rs 1,500 crore for this project.
Officials said that the government is likely to allocate sufficient funds for completion of pending irrigation projects.
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen if the government will allocate funds and announce the implementation of promises given by the Congress during Assembly elections. The government’s major promises like Rs 2,500 monthly assistance for women and unemployment allowance are still pending.