A forward looking budget: FTCCI

Hyderabad: TheFederation of Telangana Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FTCCI) President Anil Agarwal on Monday said that the Budget presented by Finance Minister T Harish Rao was a forward looking one but expressed concerns over non-disbursement of subsidies concerns the industry.

He said that the last and full-fledged Budget of the government before the election, by Harish Rao, with an expenditure outlay of Rs 2,90,396 crore was a welcome one, and the outlay was 13.2 per cent more than the 2022-23 Budget. He said that it was very heartening to note that the State registered higher GSDP and agriculture sector growth rates at 13.2 per cent and 7.4 per cent, respectively than India's growth rates. Because of the consistent high performance of the State, Telangana's share in the country's GDP grew to 4.89 per cent in 2020-21 from 4.1 per cent in 2014-15, he added.

He further said that the Budget made substantial allocations for health (4.18 per cent), education (6.5 per cent), and power sectors (4.3 per cent) though the support from the Union Budget was negligible. The FTCCI commends the efforts of the government for giving priority to the development of health and education infrastructure and for making Telangana a power surplus state, he said.

The industrial and IT sector were able to attract substantial investments from all over the world, and the state has, no doubt, became a most favoured destination for investors. We acknowledge the efforts of the government in achieving top rank in ease of doing business too. The pain for industry, particularly the manufacturing sector, was the non-disbursement of sanctioned subsidies. In the 2022-23 budget, Rs 2,503 crore were allotted towards the IPP budget, but so far only, Rs 32.7 crore were released, disappointing scores of units eagerly waiting for release, he said. "We are glad to note that FTCCI recommendation for allocation of Rs 3000 crores is considered, and this Budget has allocated Rs 2937.20 crore for Industrial production promotion. We thank the Finance Minister and Chief Minister for allocating a substantial amount for subsidies," he said. The President hoped that the government would release the quarterly allocation in time to fulfill the promise of providing incentives as stipulated in the Budget.