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Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy today presented a tax-free budget for 2013-14.
Total expenditure in the next fiscal will be Rs 1,61,346 crore against current fiscal’s Rs 1,45,854 crore. This includes non-Plan expenditure of Rs 1,01,926 crore and Plan expenditure of Rs 59,422 crore.
Fiscal deficit
The outlay is expected to leave a revenue surplus of Rs 10,023 crore and a fiscal deficit of Rs 24,487 crore. The latter works out to 2.85 per cent of Gross State Domestic product (GSDP).
“It (Budget) will usher in an era of accelerated growth of critical infrastructure in the economy and of human development indicators of all sections of the people,” the Minister said.
The revised estimates for 2011-12 shows a revenue surplus of Rs 1,685 crore against a budgeted surplus of Rs 4,444 crore. The fiscal deficit is estimated at Rs 21,129 crore at 2.86 per cent of the GSDP, well within the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.
Touching upon two important initiatives of an exclusive budget for agriculture sector and special focus on SCs, STs and tribal sections, he hoped that these would play a major role in the State economy.
Fiscal indicators
Outlining the State economic indicators, he said the overall GSDP growth during 2012-13 is likely to be 5.29 per cent at Rs 4,26,470 crore.
The government expects an outlay of Rs 3,42,842 crore for the 12th Plan, estimated to be over 9.2 per cent of the total outlay of all States and Union Territories.
The State has optimistically targeted to attain a sectoral growth of 6 per cent for agriculture, 10.5 per cent for industry and 11.5 per cent for services leading to overall growth of 10 per cent during the 12th Plan.
Sectoral allocations
Social services have been allocated 32.76 per cent of the outlay sectorally, general services 31.39 per cent and economic services 35.85.
Referring to government commitment to provide seven-hour power to 31.56 lakh pump sets in the farm sector, he said the State is targeting a capacity addition of 2,200 MW during next fiscal.
The government has made a provision of Rs 7,117 crore for power next fiscal, up from Rs 5,795 crore allocated in 2012-13 with the revised estimate of Rs 6,589 crore.
The irrigation sector has been allocated Rs 13,800 crore, industries and commerce Rs 1,120 crore, IT sector Rs 207 crore, law and order Rs 5,386 crore, roads and transport Rs 5,451 crore, urban development Rs 6,770 crore and environment and forests Rs 551 crore.
The school education sector has been allocated Rs 16,990 crore, higher education Rs 4,082 crore, housing Rs 2,326 crore, tourism Rs 163 crore, women and child welfare Rs 2,712 crore and backward classes Rs 4,027 crore.
>rishikumar.vundi@thehindu.co.in
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