Telangana to run on borrowings

Hyderabad: As the new financial year began on Friday, the Telangana State Government has big financial challenges to overcome during 2022-2023. The mobilization of financial resources for Dalit Bandhu, new Aasara pensions and recruitment for 90,000 job vacancies is a huge task before the government. How to meet the financial requirements is the question before the officials. According to them, the only option before the government was to go for huge borrowings this year also. The government will have to borrow at least Rs 4,000 crore per month from April itself. It has already projected Rs 54,000 crore borrowings as open market loans in the budget outlay which was presented in the Assembly recently.

Top officials of the Finance department said that in the last financial year 2021-2022, the state had borrowed more than Rs 50,000 crore as open market loans, special securities (Small savings and provident funds) and loans from the Union government and autonomous bodies. The government has projected the borrowings at Rs 45,000 crore.

In the new financial year, the state government has earmarked Rs 17,000 crore to the newly launched Dalit Bandhu scheme alone and increased Aasara pensions to all eligible who are 57 years and above. This would put an additional financial burden on the state exchequer. The jumbo recruitment and regularization of contract jobs in all government departments would also require another Rs 10,000 crore to pay salaries and establishment charges. Officials said that out of the total budget outlay of Rs 2.56 lakh crore, more than 70 per cent is being spent on old welfare schemes. The new announcements would require additional funds.

Overall, the State economy has recovered to the pre-Covid pandemic levels and the revenues generated from property registrations and liquor sales are also in positive mode. Though, the gap between the revenue generation and requirement widened after the announcement of Dalit Bandhu scheme and the pension scheme for the new eligible persons, officials said that borrowing will only give a relief to the state to overcome the financial constraints in the new financial year. The chief minister is said to have given his nod for institutional borrowings.