The budget session of the State Legislature is set to commence from March 12.
Governor Jishnu Dev Varma has issued orders summoning the two Houses of the legislature on Friday marking the commencement of the budget session of the legislature. The session is expected to start with the address of Governor Jishnu Dev Varma on Wednesday that will be followed by the discussion on Motion of Thanks to the Governor’s address the next day.
With summoning of the budget session of the legislature, all eyes are now on the total outlay for the financial year 2025-26 amid speculations that the budget will cross the ₹3 lakh crore-mark for the first time since the formation of Telangana. The total outlay in the budget of the current fiscal was ₹2.93 lakh crore and officials opine that 5% to 7% rise in the outlay after considering inflation and related factors would see that the total outlay would be around ₹3.12 lakh crore.
Finance department officials remained tight-lipped when asked about the approximate outlay for the next fiscal saying “no comments”. The comment comes at a time when the Finance department faces a tightrope walk in finalising the budget proposals to match the expectations of different sections that are waiting for full implementation of the promises made by the Congress ahead of the Assembly elections 14 months ago.
The department is faced with shortfall in realisation of the projections made in the budget estimates made for the fiscal 2024-25 with several key departments yet to reach 75% of the targets set for the them till February end with just one more month to go for the financial year to end. Revenues through Stamps and Registration department remained below expectations at around ₹13,000 crore till February end as against the ₹18,228 crore projected for the year so also are the accruals in the form of non tax revenue and grants in aid and contributions which were just around 25 per cent of the projections.
Revenue from the other sectors like State Excise duties too were blow the expectations with just a month to go while the expenditure on account of payment of pensions and interests far exceeded the budget estimates. The Government had incurred expenditure of more than ₹22.056 crore on interest payment as against ₹17,729 crore projected in the budget estimates till January end while pension payments were at ₹14,153 crore against ₹11,641 crore of the budget estimates.
Given this background, it will be interesting to see how the Government balances the allocations to key sectors as well as the huge spending on the spree of welfare schemes it has been implementing.
The budget session will be of key prominence as it is expected to pass legislations on enhancement of BC reservations to 42 per cent in local bodies elections as well as in education and employment sectors. The Government is set to introduce another legislation pertaining to classification of scheduled castes into three groups to ensure equal representation to all sub castes among the scheduled castes in the implementation of rule of reservation.
Published – March 08, 2025 05:21 am IST