On the 4th of February, the Telangana Government conducted a high level meeting over the preparation of Budget.
After the Union Budget 2021-2022, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is focusing on the State Budget Outlay for 2021-22 financial year.
This year, the budget is likely to be less than the 2020-2021 outlay. The outlay for the current financial year was Rs. 1.82 crores. However, due to the pandemic Novel Coronavirus and
fall in revenue, there would be a cut in the budget outlay.
K. Chandrashekar Rao, the Chief Minister of Telangana, conducted a meeting over the same.
During the meeting, the Government examined a few options to overcome the situation arising due to fall in revenue.
One such solution is a hike in the Stamp Duty and Registration fees and increase of the Municipal taxes.
This proposal was mooted by officials during the high level meeting, which marked the beginning of the upcoming Budget session.
The Telangana Budget is likely to begin soon. The officials reportedly told the chief minister that the 15th finance Commission also recommended the State to increase the stamp duty to overcome the financial crisis.
At present, the State was collecting 8 % stamp duty, which is likely to increase to 15 %.
The Chief Minister also analysed the Central budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. In the Union Budget, Telangana did not get any additional benefits and economic support to overcome the pandemic crisis.
The next financial year, 2021-2022 would be a challenge for the State, as they lost Rs. 50,000 crore revenue in the current financial year.
The State expected a financial package from the Centre to address the precarious financial condition in the next financial year but no such relief was mentioned in the Central budget for Telangana.
Top officials said to compensate the revenue loss, the Government already decided to reduce the Budget Estimations (BE 2020-2021) by at least 20% in the Revised Budget Estimations (RE.)
The BE and RE would be made public at the time of presentation of the new budget proposals during the budget session of Telangana.
Instead of poor economic conditions, the Telangana Government is going to announce unemployment dole to the youth with a new pay scale to the government employees under the new PRC.
The State Government would also implement the farm loan waiver scheme and started scouting for avenues to mobilise necessary funds.
However, the State would not launch any new scheme for the welfare of the citizens of Telangana this year.
It is also said that the Government was unlikely to propose any new schemes in the budget.
The current financial trends indicate that increase of the revenues would not be more than 5 % than the current levels.
Taking into consideration all the financial implications, the State officials indicated the total budget outlay in the new financial year would be less than Rs. 1.8 lakh crores.
The current budget outlay would not be more than Rs. 1.6 lakh crores in the revised estimates.
However, an official announcement regarding the arrangements would be made in the Budget Session, which is yet to begin.
