KCR to present budget today

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will present the full-fledged budget for 2019-20 in the State Assembly on the first day of the Budget session on Monday.

The new Finance Minister T Harish Rao will simultaneously present the budget in the Legislative Council. On Sunday, the full Cabinet which met under the chairmanship of K Chandrashekhar Rao at Pragathi Bhavan approved the State budget.

The session will also see introduction of several important Bills including the new Revenue Bill that the TRS government is keen on bringing in to ensure a transparent and corruption-free land administration.

The Business Advisory Committee will be meeting on Monday evening to decide the duration of the session and other business schedules.

The Finance Minister is expected to weigh the option of austerity measures in view of the economic slowdown that has cast its shadow on the finances of Centre as well as States.

The Chief Minister, K Chandrashekhar Rao, had already called for steps to ensure financial discipline. Prioritising the State spending to offset the impact of the slowdown could be the hall mark of the new budget.

The Chief Minister presented in February, 219 a Vote-on-Account Budget for the year 2019-20 at an estimated total expenditure of Rs 1,82,017 crores in February, 2019. This included revenue expenditure of Rs 1,31,629 crores



and capital expenditure of Rs 32,815 crores.

The estimates of the vote-on-account were overall growth rate of 10.6 per cent registered by the State during the last fiscal. In fact the State recorded over 15 per cent GSDP rate against national growth rate of 12.3 per cent during the last five years.

But the first quarter of the current financial year has seen a dip in the revenue growth in almost all spheres barring sectors such as Stamps and registrations and it is certain to have its bearing on the overall finances. 

A tight rope walk is likely to be inevitable for the New Finance Minister while striking a balance between the revenues as well as the spending on welfare.

Enough exercise was already made at the behest of the Chief Minister, who held portfolio of finance with him till today on reworking strategies to make up for the dip in revenues while insulating key sectors such as irrigation, agriculture and welfare from the impact of the economic slowdown.

The State Legislative Council will also be meeting for the budget session from Monday. During current session, the council will elect its new Chairman in place of K Swamy Goud, whose term in the council ended in March. Gutta Sukhender Reddy will be the TRS nominee for the post and he will be filing his papers on the first day of the session.