Hyderabad: Claiming that the Congress govt presented an unrealistic budget, and Telangana plunged into negative growth from a revenue surplus state, former finance minister T Harish Rao has said the state’s revenue growth, per capita income, budget estimates and actuals prove that “the budget figures have become only fiction, while expenditure has become a glaring truth”. He asked the Congress govt to reveal when it will implement all the promises made to the people in the run up to the 2023 assembly elections.Participating in the debate on the budget for 2026-27 presented by the Revanth Reddy govt, the BRS deputy leader said due to massive cuts in the budget allocation and expenditure, the implementation of welfare schemes has become questionable.“That is the reason the govt has imposed cuts in farmer support scheme Rythu Bharosa, crop bonuses, loan waivers, Indiramma’s support, Rajiv Yuva Vikas, and Kalyana Lakshmi. Not only cuts, but many schemes such as KCR Kits, Dalit Bandhu, sheep distribution, Nutrition Kit, Bathukamma sarees, and many other schemes have been stopped,” Harish Rao said.“There is a huge gap between the budget estimates and actuals. For instance, while the budget estimates (BE) for 2024-25 was 2.90 lakh crore, the actuals (revised budget estimates) were 2.66 lakh crore. That means the actuals were only 2.31 lakh crore, and the gap was about 59,231 crore. Even for 2025-26 fiscal, according to CAG till Jan, the gap between the estimates and actual budget expenditure was 54,000 crore,” the BRS leader said.For the 2026-27 fiscal, while the budget proposals were for 3.24 lakh crore, even if we assume 10.7% growth, it would be difficult to reach between 2.75 lakh crore and 2.80 lakh crore, Harish Rao said.The ex-minister said while the gross state domestic product (GSDP) growth during the nine-year of BRS rule was 12%, it has come down to 10.7%. Along with the GSDP growth rate, the per capita income growth also fell, he said.Terming the Congress govt as a failure, the BRS leader said the revenue receipts during 2014-15 were 51,400 crore and by 2023-24, it rose to 1,69,293 crore by registering a growth rate of 23%. “Now, during the Congress rule, instead of growth, the revenue decreased by 1,489 crore (-1%),” he said.Even, Harish Rao said, state own tax revenues (SOTR), registration and stamps tax, vehicle tax, excise, and other taxes have come down. He said the govt was taking huge loans from various sources, and even in the budget it was mentioned as 67,339 open market borrowings. “Going by the present trend of 88,840 crore, it is expected to touch 2 lakh crore by the end of this year,” Harish Rao said.
