The Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister, Mr Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, today said that the State budget for 2012-2013 will aim to strike a balance between welfare measures and development activities, by allocating funds judiciously.
Addressing newspersons here today after taking up deliberations for the budget preparations, Mr Reddy said that the focus is on making a realistic plan and non-plan projections for the next financial year.
The Finance Minister today commenced the exercise of department-wise budget preparation meetings and expressed that the allocations would be made based on realistic projections that can be justified by actions. The excise is likely to go on over the next few days according to schedule.
The State Finance Ministry has sought for proposals through online representations as it was felt that such an exercise would bring in transparency, accountability and also involvement of various departments and indirectly stakeholders.
Over 650 people from various departments were trained to key in budget proposals online.
While outlining the State Government's thinking on revenue generation, he said that the State is not looking at the Excise Department for revenue generation as liquor consumption has adverse impact on people.
Referring to the State Road Transport Corporation, he said that the State has released funds for purchase of buses during the year and expects to deploy more funds next fiscal too to enable it to buy more buses, which will replace its ageing fleet.