Telangana government launches hunt for funds

Hyderabad: The State Government, which had projected a whopping Rs 2.3 lakh crore budget outlay in the new fiscal year, has now launched a hunt for obtaining funds to meet the increasing financial requirements. The major challenge before the government is the payment of salaries of 2.5 lakh government employees and pensions to 2 lakh retired employees under the new PRC (Pay Revision Commission) from this month.

The government has decided to go for fund raising through security bonds from RBI every month to meet the financial needs mainly the payment of salaries costing nearly Rs 3,000 crore every month, revealed a top official.

In the previous financial year, the government spent Rs 2,300 crore on salaries every month. After the announcement of 30 per cent fitment the government would have to shell out Rs 700 crore exclusively for the payment of salaries on a monthly

basis. According to officials, revenue generation would remain the same in the first quarter of the new financial year but the financial needs increased abnormally.

Besides the payment of salaries, huge money is required for the execution of irrigation schemes, other developmental programmes and payment of interest on the loans taken for big schemes like Kaleshwaram project, Mission Bhagiratha, two BHK housing scheme and other welfare programmes. For irrigation alone, the Government earmarked Rs 16,000 crore and Rs 11,000 crore was allocated for the housing scheme.

The current trends indicate that it would be very difficult to achieve the revenue targets set by the government in the first three months of the new fiscal year as the country as well as Telangana was still struggling to revive the economy which suffered big due to the corona pandemic last year. The only option before the government is to go for borrowings. The State is entitled to borrow Rs 30,000 crore under the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility Budget Management (FRBM) Act every year.

Last year, the T State had mobilised more than Rs 40,000 crore as the Union Government permitted all States to get more funds through institutional borrowings under Atmanirbhar Bharat in the corona crisis.

The State Finance department has conducted a study on revenue generation and decided to sell the bonds in the market every month and mobilise funds to overcome the financial burden due to new pay scales and the CMO (Chief Minister Office) also gave his consent, officials said that the sale of bonds would be initiated in the third or fourth week of this month.