Andhra Pradesh Budget has no credibility, says Tulasi Reddy

Vijayawada: The annual budget introduced in Assembly on Thursday has no credibility, said working president of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee Dr Narreddy Tulasi Reddy.

He said in a statement here on Friday that the YSRCP government introduced its first budget in 2019-20 with an outlay of Rs 2,27,975 crore but finally spent only Rs 1,73,701 crore cutting down Rs 54,274 crore. Likewise, in the second year budget of 2020-21, the budget has been proposed with Rs 2,24,789 crore but spent only 1,85,468 crore cutting down Rs 39, 321 crore. The government has proposed this year budget with an outlay of Rs 2,29,779 crore but surely it would cut down Rs 60,000 crore, he predicted.

The PCC working president said that the government, which earmarked Rs 1,150 core in the budget of 2019-20 for the AgirGold victims, had released only Rs 264 crore that year. In 2020-21 also, Rs 200 crore was earmarked but not a single paise was released.

Referring to the latest allocations, the PCC working president said that the government had neglected priority sectors of agriculture, irrigation, medical and health and housing.

Expressing concern over the debt burden on the state, he pointed out that the percentage of debts in the GSDP of the state is 36.46. The debt obtained other than through various corporations was Rs 44,292 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 54, 072 crore in 2020-21.

At a time people are in deep financial problems, the government imposed an additional burden of taxes worth 27,903 crore in the latest budget, he said. "In one word, the budget is regressive and debt-ridden."