AP: Budget aims high despite shortfall

HYDERABAD: The AP state budget for 2012-13, presented in the Assembly by finance minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy Friday, projected an outlay of Rs 1.45 lakh crore. But with the national growth rate being pegged down to 6.9 per cent and drought reigning over more than 800 mandals in the state, indications are monies will be hard to come by.This follows the pattern set in the 2011-12 budget, also presented by Ramnarayan Reddy. It aimed at an outlay of Rs 1.28 lakh crore but the revised estimates presented on Friday showed that only about `1.22 lakh crore was managed. Of the projected outlay of Rs 1,45,854 crore, the budget apportions Rs 91,824 crore to non-plan expenditure and Rs 54,030 crore to plan.The fiscal deficit in Budget 2012-13 is expected to be Rs 20,008 crore, or 2.45 per cent of GSDP. Revenue surplus will be Rs 4,444 crore.In a metaphorical indication of the exertion the budget targets will require, Ramnanarayana Reddy suffered a bout of hypoglycaemia while reading out his long budget speech. His colleague Ponnala Lakshmaiah took the mike from the finance minister to deliver a part of the speech. Ramnarayana duly recovered.The budget made it clear that the Congress government’s ardour for the Jalayagnam programme has cooled a bit with the finance minister retaining allocation to major irrigation at the same level as last year: Rs 15,010 crore. Although that was the budget projection in 2011-12, the revised estimate presented this year’s showed that only Rs 8,459 crore was spent on the mega projects.Interestingly, a shift of focus to minor irrigation could be discerned in the budget with the allocation to minor irrigation upped by Rs 417 crore.Allocation of funds to the fee reimbursement scheme, the Congress government’s flagship programme, has been pegged at Rs 3,313 crore.In 2011-12, the allocation had been Rs 3872 crore including an arrears component of Rs 1,370 crore.In a budget containing little that is new, Ramnarayan Reddy set aside Rs 600 crore for an initiative to build upon the projects executed by the NREGS programme in order to make them durable assets. The funds will go towards all-weather rural connectivity and minor irrigation projects. Of the Rs 600 crore allocated, Rs 200 crore will go to the Panchayat Raj and Rs 300 crore to the Minor Irrigation. The government’s thrust on sports was underlined with an allocation hike from Rs 20 crore to Rs 200 crore. The finance minister made an allocation of Rs 5,937 crore for the power sector, an increase of 19 per cent.