Telangana Govt ensuring steady fund flow for welfare schemes

Hyderabad: The State government is gearing up for mobilising necessary funds to ensure that none of the welfare schemes or developmental activities suffer a setback during the next financial year that would begin from April 1, 2023.

Being an election year, the government is contemplating to allocate funds mostly for implementation of Aasara pensions, Kalyana Lakshmi Pathakam - Shaadi Mubarak, Dalit Bandhu and completion of two BHK housing projects.

It has directed the revenue earning departments to ensure 100 percent tax collection from VAT, Excise and property registrations and make sure that no new tax burden falls on the common man.

Accordingly, the Finance department has prepared an action plan to mobilise on a monthly basis so that there would be no delay in the release of funds during the next three quarters in the run up to the polls.

April to December is a very crucial period for the government and it has to ensure that all promises are fulfilled and benefits are delivered in time, a top official told Hans India.

Source said despites hurdles from the Centre, the state government achieved revenue generation from SOTR (State Owned Tax Revenues) in the 2022-2023 financial year. The source said the government had succeeded in reducing the borrowing limit to Rs 40,000 crore in the new financial year. This was done as the State government does not expect much help from the Centre.

Out of Rs 1.31 lakh crore revenue target, the Finance wing plans to generate Rs 12,000 crore and seek Rs 3,000 crore as borrowings from the financial institutions every month. The requirement of funds would be Rs 20,000 crore per month to implement all schemes, including the payment of salaries.

The only challenge before the government is to fill the gap of Rs 5,000 crore per month to execute all the programmes. The government will divert some funds earmarked to capital investment to implement welfare schemes and complete the development programmes if need be.

A high-level meeting of all important wings is proposed to be held in April where the action plan would be announced.