Budget figures juggled: Jana Reddy

​Hyderabad: Calling the budget as unrealistic, the leader of Opposition in the Assembly K Jana Reddy on Thursday said that the government should have limited the budget to Rs 1.28 lakh crore and has over estimated the revenues from various sources.

Jana Reddy said it is more of a make believe budget and jugglery of figures. Referring to the CAG report, he said that there was mismatch in what the government claimed and what the CAG had said.

He said while CAG said that the revenue during 2015-16 was Rs 73,000 crore, the State government had put it at Rs 76,000 crore. He asked the State government to maintain required balance between assets and loans or else Telangana would face a severe financial crisis.

Speaking during general discussion on the budget 2017-18 in the Assembly on Thursday, Jana Reddy pointed out that from 1956 to 1994, the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh had more assets and less liabilities. However, he said that from 1994 to 2000, the State's debts increased by more than double the assets.

He said the government takes loans to create assets. However, when the debts surpass the value of assets, the State runs into problems and he feared that the Telangana State was on the verge of losing balance between the two.

Jana Reddy said that the budget presented by Finance Minister Eatala Rajender was not reflective of State's actual financial position. He said budget figures were highly inflated and the government would have to stop several schemes and projects if it fails to get the projected revenues.

He said despite failure to implement the projected budget for the last three years, this year too, the budget has been increased by almost 30%. He said a rich State like Gujarat which has a population of nearly six crore people presented a budget of just Rs 1.71 lakh crore this year although it had spent about Rs 1.46 lakh crore last year.

The Congress leader said that the State government would be able to spend more than Rs1.12 lakh crore this year.

Therefore, with an increase of about 14%, the realistic budget should have been of Rs 1.28 lakh crore. However, he said that the TRS government presented a budget of Rs 1.49 lakh crore. He said that the figures pertaining to central grants have been over estimated.

Jana Reddy said that while the budget figures have been touching the sky, the State government has failed to fulfill the basic needs of the common people. He said that the agriculture sector was in deep crisis.

As against the food grains productions of 1.7 lakh tonnes in 2013-14, the last year of Congress regime, the production came down to 72,000 tonnes after TRS government took over in 2014-15. Second year it came down to 51,000 tonnes and in third year it was 77,000 tonnes. Similarly, the net irrigated area too registered a steep decline.

As against the claims of State having a surplus budget of nearly Rs 3,000 crore, Jana Reddy said that the Comptroller & Auditor General of India clearly pointed out the State was in a deficit of over Rs 4,000 crore. He said there was no progress in industrialisation and creation of new jobs.

Reddy demanded that the government explain by when it would constitute separatecorporation for the most backward classes. He said the budget does not give any clarity on the distribution of three acres of land to Dalits. At the present pace, it would take about 30 years.

He demanded the government to announce a time frame by which it would pay the PRC arrears and DA to the government employees and by when it would clear the fee reimbursement arrears. He also demanded that the detailed project reports of the irrigation projects be shown to the Opposition and examine their objections.