K. Chandrashekhar Rao

Hyderabad : Proposing an unemployment allowance of Rs 3,000 per month ahead of elections, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Friday presented a Vote-on-Account Budget for 2019-20 that has an estimated expenditure of Rs 1,82,017 crore, an increase of 4 per cent over the previous year.

Presenting the interim budget in the Assembly, KCR, as Rao is popularly known, said the GSDP growth rate of the state has doubled since its formation in 2014 and its Budget for the new fiscal showed a revenue expenditure of Rs 1,31,629 crore and capital expenditure of Rs.32,815 crore.

KCR said since the Union Government introduced a Vote-on-Account budget for the next year and as there was no clarity as to what would be the priorities for expenditure, the state government too was presenting interim budget.

“In 2019-20 the estimated revenue surplus is Rs 6,564 crore and fiscal deficit is Rs 27,749 crore,” Rao said in his budget speech.

The fiscal deficit is 2.81 per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

“State’s own revenues for Budget Estimate (BE) of 2019-20 are at Rs 94,776 crore in comparison with Revised Estimate (RE) of 2018-19 at Rs 72,777 crore.

Transfers from the Centre as per BE 2019-20 is Rs 22,835 crore, while in RE 2018-19 these are estimated at Rs 28,042 crore, he said.

“The growth rate of GSDP, at constant prices, was 4.2 per cent in the two years prior to state formation. By 2017-18, this accelerated by more than twice to 10.4 per cent.”

He also proposed Rs 1810 crore in the Budget to introduce unemployment allowance of Rs 3,016 per month to the eligible.

—IANS