Rs 1.60 lakh crore spent on capex in 5 years, says official

: Telangana has spent Rs 1.60 lakh crore on capital expenditure during the past five years, principal finance secretary K Ramakrishna Rao said Tuesday.

He said the GSDP (gross state domestic product) for the last fiscal was at Rs 8.67 lakh crore when compared to Rs 7.54 lakh crore in 2017-18, a 15 per cent growth.

The primary sector growth rate was at 10.90 per cent and the secondary sector grew at 14.90 per cent while it was 15.50 per cent for the tertiary sector.

"In the last five years, the total amount of money which was spent on capital expenditure is Rs 1.6 lakh crore both within the budet and outside the budget. We see overall growth rate (GSDP) at higher side due to higher spend on capital expenditure. The more the capital expenditure the higher the GDP growth," Rao said in a press conference.

According to him, Telanganas own tax revenue grew at 14. 5 per cent for the year 2018-19 and it was 16.5 per cent during the last five years.

The official said Rs 6000 crore was provided for 'Rythu Bandhu' scheme to farmers scheme for six months in the vote on account budget and the same could not be released due to prevailing model code of conduct owing to the general elections.

The disbursement to farmers would start once the model code of conduct is lifted.

Provisions for all flagship schemes of the government were made by maintaining fiscal prudence in the budget and funds were available for the schemes, Rao said.