Congress demands White Paper on Telangana’s finances

Hyderabad, January 9: Stating that a major financial crisis was all set to hit the State, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin demanded that the TRS Government release a White Paper on the State’s financial status.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday, Nizamuddin said that the finances of Telangana were in extremely bad shape with State Government having no clarity on how to handle the future requirement and bridge the huge gap between revenues and expenditure. In order to fulfil the electoral promises, TRS Government would need about Rs. 2.5 lakh crore per year. However, the present revenues from all sources were less than Rs. 1.5 lakh per annum. Therefore, there needs to be clarity on how this huge deficit of over Rs. 1 lakh crore would be covered, he said.

The TPCC Spokesperson said that the expenditure on salaries would increase from Rs. 24,581 crore in 2018-19 to at least Rs. 40,000 crore from next year as the State Government is due to announce the new PRC and fill nearly one lakh vacant posts. Due to continuous borrowing, the interest payments will also increase from Rs. 11,691 crore in 2018-19 to nearly Rs. 15,000 crore next year. About Rs. 10,000 crore will be needed for various subsidies.

Nizamuddin said Since Central Govt is going for Vote on Account due to elections, State Government has no clarity on actual amount it would get as Central Grants and it is also planning to have Vote on Account instead of a regular budget. “Since CM KCR claims that Telangana is a rich and revenue surplus State, he should go ahead with a regular budget without depending upon Central Grants,” he said.

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