E-Paper
TDP demands fiscal council to monitor Andhra revenue, expense
Senior TDP leader and former state finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said in a statement that financial expert N K Singh, who was on the review committee of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, had recommended formation of the fiscal council to bring financial discipline among the states.
The Telugu Desam Party on Monday demanded that the Andhra Pradesh government constitute a fiscal council with experts as its members to monitor revenue and expenditure of the state, accusing the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government of ruining the economy.
Senior TDP leader and former state finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said in a statement that financial expert N K Singh, who was on the review committee of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, had recommended formation of the fiscal council to bring financial discipline among the states.
He said the fiscal council would scrutinise the implementation of the budget manual and control the public expenditure on a regular basis. “The state government continues to indulge in financial irregularities, budget violations and fiscal indiscipline.”
Ramakrishnudu said that if the fiscal council was formed, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government would not be able to take massive loans by violating the FRBM norms.
The TDP leader alleged that revenue deficits and debts had increased manifold in the past three years. “The double digit growth rate of 10.22 per cent under the TDP rule came down to -2.58 per cent. This was enough to show the extent of the financial crisis that was caused till now,” he said.
Ramakrishnudu said the capital expenditure fell from ₹9,976 crore in 2018-19 to ₹14,000 crore in 2020-21. The state’s revenue had gone up by 12.6 per cent when compared to the period from 2016 to 2019 under the TDP rule.
“The collections in the last three years of the TDP regime were ₹ 318,716 crore, while those in the first three years of the YSRCP government were ₹358,837 crore. Moreover, the Jagan government had resorted to massive borrowings to the extent of ₹371,756 crore. Yet, it could not spend money under capital expenditure heads,” he said.
Finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy rejected the demand for creation of a fiscal council to monitor the state expenditure. “The Central government itself clarified that there is no need for such a council where there are other institutions like Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Finance Commission and Department of Statistics,” he said.
He refuted the allegations that the state government had violated the FRBM norms in going in for borrowings. “It is not proper to compare the last two financial years with normal years. The state financial position suffered heavily due to coronavirus pandemic. The revenue came down by ₹8,000 crore in 2020-21, while the state had to spend an additional amount of ₹7,120 crore on tackling the pandemic,” Reddy pointed out.
The minister also denied the charges that the capital expenditure of the state had come down during the YSRCP regime. “The capital expenditure during 2018-19 was only ₹19,976 crore and it has gone up to ₹31,198 crore during the current years. Despite Covid-19 pandemic, we spent ₹18,797 crore during 2020-21,” he said.
