“Please all, hurt none” seemed to be the motto of finance minister
Anam Ramanarayana Reddy when he presented -- with one eye cocked to the
general election next year -- a Rs 1,61,348 crore budget for 2013-14 in
the Assembly Monday. The budget is 10.62 per cent bigger than the outlay
for 2012-13. There were no taxes as it has become a tradition for
governments to present a tax-free budget in March and increase rates
later.
The finance minister announced some new schemes such as Rajiv Deevena which will give pre-matric scholarships to around 3 lakh SC students.
Agriculture minister Kanna Lakshminarayana, presenting a Rs 25,962 crore “agriculture action plan”, announced a `100 crore Market Intervention Fund to ensure minimum support price for farm produce. He also announced a Natural Calamities Fund with Rs 589.04 crore to provide immediate relief to farmers in the event of natural calamities.
In sum, the budget presented by the Congress government seemed to be an attempt to woo the weaker sections, students and farmers ahead of the elections in 2014.
The budget also set apart 22.8 per cent of the funding for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as per the newly enacted law on SC/ST sub-plans.
In an hour-long budget speech, the finance minister said the state’s GSDP for 2012-13 was estimated to have grown 5.29 per cent over the previous year. “The state has optimistically targeted sectoral growth of 6 per cent for agriculture, 10.5 per cent for industry and 11.5 per cent for services leading to an overall growth target of 10 per cent for the 12th Plan,” he said.
The finance minister, however, imposed a cut in allocation for irrigation projects, granting only Rs 13,804 crore for the Jalayagnam programme as against Rs 15,013 crore in 2012-13. “We hope to secure national project status for the Polavaram and Pranahita-Chevella projects and thereby secure 90 per cent funds from the government of India. Hence the lower allocation for the irrigation department,” he explained.
Also, there were only marginal increases in allocation for education, medical and health and housing. Subsidy for the Re 1-per-kg rice scheme remained the same at Rs 3,000 crore, while the power subsidy was enhanced by a meagre Rs 200 crore from Rs 5,500 crore.
Overall allocation to the power sector has been increased to Rs 7,117 crore, even as government targets adding 2200 MW to an installed power generation capacity of 16,386 MW.
This year’s presentation was notable for an attempt by the government to present a separate budget for agriculture in what was trumpeted as a first-ever exercise. But it turned out to be a damp squib. Due to a lack of coordination between the government and the Assembly staff, the ‘agriculture budget’ was amended to ‘an agriculture action plan’ because it seemed to violate legislative privileges.
The TDP boycotted the agriculture minister’s presentation and walked out of the Assembly, dubbing the government’s “pioneering move” as “unconstitutional”.
While the focus on the elections was apparent, the finance minister said it was not a poll budget.
The finance minister announced some new schemes such as Rajiv Deevena which will give pre-matric scholarships to around 3 lakh SC students.
Agriculture minister Kanna Lakshminarayana, presenting a Rs 25,962 crore “agriculture action plan”, announced a `100 crore Market Intervention Fund to ensure minimum support price for farm produce. He also announced a Natural Calamities Fund with Rs 589.04 crore to provide immediate relief to farmers in the event of natural calamities.
In sum, the budget presented by the Congress government seemed to be an attempt to woo the weaker sections, students and farmers ahead of the elections in 2014.
The budget also set apart 22.8 per cent of the funding for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as per the newly enacted law on SC/ST sub-plans.
In an hour-long budget speech, the finance minister said the state’s GSDP for 2012-13 was estimated to have grown 5.29 per cent over the previous year. “The state has optimistically targeted sectoral growth of 6 per cent for agriculture, 10.5 per cent for industry and 11.5 per cent for services leading to an overall growth target of 10 per cent for the 12th Plan,” he said.
The finance minister, however, imposed a cut in allocation for irrigation projects, granting only Rs 13,804 crore for the Jalayagnam programme as against Rs 15,013 crore in 2012-13. “We hope to secure national project status for the Polavaram and Pranahita-Chevella projects and thereby secure 90 per cent funds from the government of India. Hence the lower allocation for the irrigation department,” he explained.
Also, there were only marginal increases in allocation for education, medical and health and housing. Subsidy for the Re 1-per-kg rice scheme remained the same at Rs 3,000 crore, while the power subsidy was enhanced by a meagre Rs 200 crore from Rs 5,500 crore.
Overall allocation to the power sector has been increased to Rs 7,117 crore, even as government targets adding 2200 MW to an installed power generation capacity of 16,386 MW.
This year’s presentation was notable for an attempt by the government to present a separate budget for agriculture in what was trumpeted as a first-ever exercise. But it turned out to be a damp squib. Due to a lack of coordination between the government and the Assembly staff, the ‘agriculture budget’ was amended to ‘an agriculture action plan’ because it seemed to violate legislative privileges.
The TDP boycotted the agriculture minister’s presentation and walked out of the Assembly, dubbing the government’s “pioneering move” as “unconstitutional”.
While the focus on the elections was apparent, the finance minister said it was not a poll budget.
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