Andhra presents Rs.1.83 lakh crore vote-on-account

Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy Monday presented a tax-free, revenue-surplus vote-on-account for 2014-15 with an overall expenditure of over Rs.1.83 lakh crore.

In his budget speech in the state assembly, he said the overall expenditure in fiscal 2014-15 would be Rs.183,129 crore, comprising Rs.115,179 crore under non-plan and Rs.67,950 crore under plan heads.

The overall budget is more than 13 percent over 2013-14. With elections round the corner, the Congress government has presented vote-on-account instead of a full-fledged budget.

Presenting his fourth budget, Ramanarayana Reddy said estimated revenue surplus would be Rs.474 crore and fiscal deficit would be Rs.25,402 crore.

The finance minister presented the budget amid protests by legislators from Telangana over the manner in which the house passed a resolution, by a voice vote, Jan 30 rejecting the Telangana bill sent by the President to the legislature for its opinion.

The budget speech last for only 15 minutes as Ramanarayana Reddy presented only highlights and laid his speech on the table.

Speaker N. Manohar adjourned the house till Wednesday. He called a meeting of Business Advisory Committee (BAC) to chalk out the agenda for the four-day session.

Endowments Minister C. Ramachandraiah tabled the interim budget in the legislative council. The council was also adjourned till Wednesday.