Taking cue from Finance Minister Sitharaman: TS begins budget exercise early

Hyderabad: Following reports that the Centre is likely to bring some modifications in the allocation of funds to the states in the next Union Budget to be presented in February, the state government has preponed the exercise to prepare budget estimates for the financial year 2020-2021.

The Finance department has instructed all the departments to submit estimations online for the new financial year. The departments have also been asked to furnish the details of the revised estimations for 2019-20.

"In the recently held state Finance ministers meeting presided over by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi, all the state Finance ministers, including Telangana Finance Minister T Harish Rao, demanded more funds and early release of the same to the states.

The Union minister who accepted the delay in the release of allocations made under the centrally-sponsored schemes to the states, asked them to send the proposals early to the Centre for the next financial year," a senior official said.

Generally, the government takes up budget preparation during the second week of January.

Based on the estimations submitted by the departments, officials said, the state government will forward the proposals to the Centre requesting allocation of funds in the Union Budget and the early release of the same.

"The government is confident that the Centre will respond positively to the state demands in the next budget," he said.

In view of the economic slowdown, the Finance department also instructed the departments to submit the revised estimations for the 2019-20.

Due to fall in the state revenues, the government has already trimmed the budget of many schemes and asked all the departments to adopt austerity measures in the last two quarters of this financial year.

It is estimated that the funds earmarked in the 2019-20 budget proposals will be reduced nearly by 30 per cent in the revised estimations.

In the previous financial years, the gap between the annual budget outlay and revised estimation used to be between 10 and 20 per cent. This time the gap is likely to go up to 25 to 30 per cent due to financial crisis, the sources said.