All eyes on the total budget outlay for 2025-26
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.
