The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Government is all set to start its effort to resolve the financial downturn in the State.
On the 12th of December, the TRS Government’s departments formulated a few measures to control the funding for several projects and make fresh proposals with regards to the economic slowdown in the State.
On the 11th of December, K. Chandrashekar Rao, the Chief Minister of Telangana, conducted a Cabinet meeting and directed the State officials to take care of the expenditure and draft proposals to eliminate the financial downturn. He even asked the officials not to go beyond the allocated budget for the implementation of the schemes.
As per KCR’s instructions, the Finance Department is working on guidelines for implementing austerity measures in the government departments for better functioning especially to control unnecessary expenditures. The officials also directed the concerned officials of all government departments to shortlist the priority based projects and welfare schemes which needs fundings.
A senior official of the Finance Department addressed the media and said, “The Chief Minister does not want to compromise on welfare schemes. Besides irrigation and power projects, the Government is keen on continuing its schemes such as Rythu Bandhu, farm loan waiver scheme, double bedroom houses, Kalyana Lakshmi/Shaadi Mubarak, and other welfare schemes.”
According to official statistics, Telangana witnessed a downfall in revenue by Rs. 838 crores in October 2019. The officials mentioned that Rs. 4,531 crores of Goods Service Tax (GST) are yet to be released to Telangana from the Centre, following which the State recorded GST revenue reduction of Rs. 2,332 crores.
According to finance officials, the Union Government allocated Rs. 19,719 crores to Telangana for the fiscal year 2019-2020. However, so far, the Central Government released only Rs. 10,304 crores as tax share till October.
If officials are to be believed, the Telangana Government is yet to receive an amount of Rs. 29,891 crores, including Rs. 4,531 crores as GST dues, from the Government of India (GoI.)
Besides all the allocated amount and GST dues, the GoI also needs to release an amount of Rs. 450 crores under the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF,) Rs. 313 crores recommended by the Finance Commission for rural development and Rs. 393 crores under Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) grants, amongst others.
The senior official of the Finance Department of Telangana said, “We are staring at a financial crisis where the State is falling short of Rs 2,000 crore every month while comparing both revenue and expenditure of the State.”
As of now, the State Government is trying to come up with ways to control the economic slowdown without affecting the schemes and development projects in the State.
Stay tuned for further updates.
