E-Paper
No new schemes in ₹2.86L cr AP vote-on-account
For the financial year 2024-25, the minister projected an overall expenditure of ₹2,86,389.27 crore, with revenue expenditure estimated at ₹2,30,110.41 crore and capital expenditure ₹30,530.18 crore
Andhra Pradesh finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy on Wednesday presented a vote-on-account budget in the state assembly for the financial year 2024-25 with an outlay of ₹2.86 lakh crore.
Though the budget proposals were made for the entire year, the minister sought the approval of the state assembly for the vote-on-account budget for the first four months – from April to July -- considering upcoming elections to the state assembly. A full-fledged budget would be presented by the new government to be formed after the elections, scheduled to be held in April.
For the entire financial year of 2024-25, the finance minister projected an overall expenditure of ₹2,86,389.27 crore, with revenue expenditure estimated at ₹2,30,110.41 crore and capital expenditure ₹30,530.18 crore. The net public debt in the budget estimates for 2024-25 is estimated to be around ₹54,451 crore.
“The estimated revenue deficit is around ₹24,758.22 crore and the fiscal deficit is estimated at around ₹55,817.50 crore. The fiscal deficit will be around 3.51% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), whereas the revenue deficit will be around 1.56% of the GSDP,” Reddy said.
This being the vote-on-account budget, the finance minister did not announce the introduction of any new schemes or new programmes by the state government.
He, however, explained in detail the various initiatives taken by the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in welfare and development sectors in the last five years, transforming the state into one of the most progressive states in the country.
Reddy said the state government had been implementing various welfare schemes under the direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode, leveraging the Village and Ward Secretariats and Volunteer network, comprising over 3 lakh work force. “This has ensured that the benefits reach all the deserving beneficiaries, irrespective of caste, religion, and any other affiliations on a real time basis,” he said.
Between 2019-20 and 2023-24, the state government had spent ₹2.53 lakh crore through DBT schemes and another ₹1.68 lakh crore through non-DBT schemes. “Due to these schemes, lakhs of families have escaped poverty, uplifted their standard of living, and availed new opportunities for growth and development. This has resulted in a quantum jump in the per capita income of the state from ₹1,54,031 in 2018-19 to ₹2,19,518 in 2022-23. The overall rank of the state has improved from 18th position to 9th position,” he said.
Reddy said the state government focussed more on education and health sectors, which were key to the human resource development in the state. In the education sector, the state government laid emphasis on preparing students for global competition by introducing English medium education in all government schools.
“We have brought 439,595 students studying in 1000 schools in our state under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). We are introducing the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum in all public high schools and providing a TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language) certificate to every student,” the minister said.
Apart from providing school-kits including uniforms, bags, shoes, textbooks etc. at a cost of ₹3,367 crore benefiting about 47 lakh children annually through Jagananna Vidya Kanuka, the government also introduced Mana Badi-Nadu-Nedu (Our schools then and now), aimed at improving the school infrastructure in 56,703 government schools, welfare hostels and junior colleges.
With regard to the health sector, the state government strengthened the public health infrastructure by improving facilities from sub-centres to teaching hospitals with investment of ₹16,852 crore. “The chief minister also conceptualised the idea of Family Doctor as an innovative programme to take healthcare to doorstep of the people. About 284 family doctors, types of medical tests and types of medicines have been made accessible to the people,” he said.
Similarly, the state government was providing cashless healthcare to the poor people under Dr YSR Aargoyasri scheme, enhancing the income limit from ₹2.5 lakh to ₹5 lakh per annum per family; providing services up to ₹25 lakh per family, including unlimited coverage for critical ailments like cancer.
“Under Jagananna Arogya Suraksha, free doorstep healthcare services along with free medicines were provided through camps covering 1.67 crore families,” he said.
The finance minister claimed that his government had maintained healthy working relations with the Centre and succeeded in getting the release of ₹10,460 crore revenue deficit grant of 2014-15 from the Centre. “We also got the directions issued to Telangana to pay the power dues of ₹6,756 crore to Andhra Pradesh. “We also obtained pending instalments of Backward district grants of ₹1,050 crore,” he said.
“We could have done many more developmental works had there been no Covid-19 and a better financial situation,” Reddy said.
