Congress expresses concern over low spending

Hyderabad, Aug 24 (INN): The Congress party on Wednesday expressed concern over low spending on budget by the TRS Government in Telangana State.

In a media statement, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Treasurer Gudur Narayan Reddy said that the State Government did not spend even 15% of the amounts allocated in the annual budget during the last five months. At this rate, he said, the government would not be able to spend even 25% of the allocations till the end of Second Quarter on September 30. He also accused the TRS Government of hiding figures related to revenues and spending.

Citing an instance, he said that the Finance Department's website claims that the government had so far spent Rs. 25.545.20 Crore during the financial year 2016-17. It includes Rs. 8800.77 Crore under Non-Plan and Rs. 16,744.33 crore under Plan budget. Contrary to these figures, the BROs issued Finance Department for about 130 HODs show that government has so far released about Rs. 20,084 Crore.

"TRS Government is unable to manage State's finances in a proper manner. There is no uniformity in spending pattern and it is clearly unable to meet the targets. According to the figures provided by the Finance Department, of Rs. 61,622.13 allocated under Non-Plan budget, only Rs. 8800.77 Crore or just 14.28% amount has been spent. Similarly, of Rs. 72,195.73 Crore under Plan Expenditure, only Rs. 16,744.43 Crore or 23.19% have been released. This pace of spending does not match the claims made by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao of Telangana State registering increase in revenues in the last few months," Narayana Reddy said.

The TPCC Treasurer predicted that TRS Government might set a new record of not spending the allocated budget for three years in a row. In the financial year 2014-15, as against the budget of Rs. 100,637 Crore, only Rs. 62,306 Crore were spent. Similarly, the budget of Rs. 115,689 Crore in 2015-16 was revised to Rs. 100,062 crore and not even Rs. 90,000 Crore were actually spent. This year too, the State Government appears to be in no position to spend the entire allocated amount of Rs. 133,817.86 Crore during 2016-17.

Narayana Reddy said that the spending on welfare, health and education was too low during the last five months. "Finance Minister Eatala Rajender must present a clear picture on State's revenues and expenditures. He must give an assurance that the State Government would spend Rs. 1.33 lakh crore allocated in this year's budget," he demanded.