Andhra presents Rs 105 lakh cr interim Budget

Andhra Pradesh finance minister K Rosaiah on Thursday presented a Rs 105,144crore vote-on-account Budget for the year 2009-10 of which nonplan expenditure comprises Rs 63,252 crore and plan Rs 41,892 crore.

This would result in a revenue surplus of Rs 1,255 crore while the fiscal deficit for the year is estimated to be Rs 12,092 crore, about 2.93 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP).

Giving the revised estimates for 2008-09, Rosaiah said there was a revenue surplus of Rs 2,066 crore as against the budgeted Rs 709 crore. The fiscal deficit for the year is estimated at Rs 10,427 crore, 2.9 per cent of the GSDP.

Though there is an impact of the global slowdown, the state would still achieve an eight per cent growth rate during the current year, as against the 7 to 8 per cent target set under the National Common Minimum Programme, the minister said.

The state grew at a near 9 per cent during the period 2004-08. Irrigation projects and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme spurred the demand for employment and labour resulting in improvement of the quality of life.

The government has accorded highest priority to the manufacturing sector “as it has a potential to create substantial employment outside the agriculture sector”. For the year 2009-10, it has earmarked Rs 712 crore for industry and infrastructure sectors.

Surprisingly, it did not make any fresh allocations to the Jalayagnam programme, taken up at an estimated cost of Rs 1.5 lakh crore to create a new irrigation area of 10.9 million acre and stabilising the 2.1 million acre ayacut. He informed that the Polavaram irrigation project had received all the clearances.

The government has made a provision of Rs 312 crore for the weavers and has proposed a one-time write-off of loans sanctioned to weavers' cooperative societies and individual weavers under the Prime Minister Rojgar Yojna and Rajiv Yuva Shakti schemes.

For urban development, it has earmarked Rs 3,746 crore. The government is expediting the construction of the Outer Ring Road (Rs 6.786 crore), elevated express way (Rs 600 crore) to connect the international airport and the Rs 12,000crore Hyderabad Metro Rail project, Rosaiah said.

The state will double its installed power generation capacity (12,500 Mw) in five years. Most of the capacity addition will be through coal-based thermal power projects. The government, which extended a subsidy of Rs 2,385 crore to APTransco this year, has allocated Rs 5,040 crore for 2009-10.