Projecting a rosy picture of the State’s finances, Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy today presented a tax-free Budget of Rs 1.45 lakh crore for 2012-13 with an estimated revenue surplus of Rs 4,444 crore and fiscal deficit of Rs 20,008 crore.
As has been the norm for the past few years, no new taxes have been proposed as such in the Budget though in practice different taxes are being enhanced subsequently during the financial year.
A case in point is the enhancement of value-added tax (VAT) on various products from 4 to 5 per cent which earned an extra Rs 3,000 crore to the Government this fiscal year.
Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu was quick to raise this point while debunking the Budget. “Andhra Pradesh has the highest taxes as compared to other states. The taxes levied on people are double their income.”
Other Opposition parties, too, slammed the Budget, terming it as “devoid of facts”.
The State’s Budget for fiscal year 2011-12 was Rs 1.28 lakh crore, but was cut down to Rs 1.22 lakh crore as per the revised estimates presented to the Assembly today.
The Finance Minister enhanced allocations to all sectors by varying percentage for the next fiscal though the State could not actually achieve the targets fixed in the current year’s Budget.
“As in the past, we have made substantial allocations to welfare programmes. Allocation for SC, ST, minority and BC welfare programmes has been enhanced significantly from Rs 4,038 crore to Rs 5,870 crore while allocation for women and child welfare has been raised from Rs 1,856 crore to Rs 2,282 crore,” Reddy told reporters after presenting the Budget in the Assembly.
Of the total expenditure proposed, Rs 91,824 crore will be under non-plan and Rs 54,030 crore under plan category, according to the Finance Minister.
Though the Government projected a revenue surplus of Rs 3,826 crore in the 2011-12 budget, revised estimates put the figure at only Rs 780 crore and the fiscal deficit at Rs 17,784 crore.
The revenue receipts, barring the state share of Central taxes, showed a negative trend as per the revised estimates, but the Finance Minister projected an overall increase of Rs 24,000 crore in 2012-13, thereby taking the overall revenues to Rs 1.16 lakh crore.
No new scheme has been announced in the Budget as such but the schemes introduced by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy during the year like zero-interest loans to farmers and women self-help groups (SHGs) and supply of rice at Re 1-a-kg rice for the poor were listed out by the Finance Minister in his speech with financial allocations.
The subsidy burden on the Government also increased substantially from Rs 9,772 crore to Rs 12,692 crore, of which Rs 5,500 crore will for free power to agriculture sector and Rs 3,000 crore to Re 1-a-kg rice scheme.
Interestingly, Major Irrigation Department, that has got a lion’s share of budgetary allocations since 2005 for the ambitious Jalayagnam programme, did not get any increased allocation for the next year.
Like in the current year, the Department will get only Rs 15,010 crore in 2012-13 even as the Government claimed to have spent an aggregate of Rs 71,292 crore on major irrigation projects since 2004-05 till January 2012.
Continuing its focus on agriculture, the Government allocated Rs 300 crore for crop insurance in the next fiscal compared to a negligible Rs 4 crore in the current year.
While Rs 200 crore has been earmarked for (3 per cent) interest subsidy on crop loans, Rs 375 crore has been given for interest-free farm loans. Also, Rs 700 crore has been allocated towards interest-free loans to women SHGs.
However, the Irrigation Department might spend only about Rs 10,000 crore out of the budgetary allocation during the current financial year, according to the Finance Minister.
Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department got a quantum jump in its budgetary allocation, from Rs 3,676 crore to Rs 6,586 crore, while there has not been any significant increase for many other departments.
Criticising the Budget, TRS MLA T Harish Rao alleged that it failed to respond to the concerns of Telangana people, the Dalits and other weaker sections.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the Budget, YSR Congress claimed that the Government has ignored two core issues mentioned in the 2009 election manifesto.
“The nine-hour power supply to farmer and 30 kg rice schemes, which were the main reasons for Congress coming back to power in 2009, were ignored by the Government which has misplaced priorities in this budget,” party leader Konatala Ramakrishna said.
Lok Satta Party President and MLA Jayaprakash Narayan expressed his dismay over the Government’s alleged silence on policies relating to allotment of lands and mines, and liquor auctions in the Budget for 2012-13.
He said the Supreme Court, in a petition filed by the Lok Satta and others on the 2G spectrum scam, had directed that all natural resources like land and mines, not merely spectrum, be allocated on competitive bidding.
“Andhra Pradesh, which has become the epicentre of corruption in allocation of lands and mines, ought to have indicated compliance with the Supreme Court directive,” he maintained.
Similarly, the Government did not utter a word on reviewing the present liquor policy which has been ruining poor people’s health and finances, besides spawning monumental corruption.
–PTI–