T Harish Rao rejects the allegations made by the Opposition over the State's economy

Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Thursday tore into the allegations made by the opposition over the health of the State’s economy, stating that Telangana’s fundamentals and foundation were strong and that debt was under control.

Replying to the two-day general discussion on the budget in the Assembly here, the Minister reeled out figures and statistics to put the opposition on the mat. He gave details of the actual sector-wise allocations made by the TRS government in the past five and half years and compared them with the allocation made by the successive governments in undivided Andhra Pradesh.

“The people of the State are happy with the allocations made by the TRS government in the 2020-21 Budget under the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. Only Congress is disappointed by the budget because it fulfills the



aspirations of the people,” he said, adding that the government did not slash allocations for any welfare programme despite the decreasing share in tax income and grant-in-aid from the Central government.

Expressing confidence about spending every single rupee of the Rs 1,82,914.42 crore budget outlay, the Minister said the fears expressed by the Congress and the BJP about fiscal deficit were baseless. “The loans raised by the State government are meant for capital expenditure, and the State has obtained loans well within the limits set by the Central government,” the Minister said.

He pointed out that 19 States in the country had crossed the FRBM limits, while Telangana was sixth from the last in the list, making it amply clear that the State was following fiscal discipline.