TS Ranks No 1 With 16.3% Growth Rate: Ramakrishna

Hyderabad, May 21 (Maxim News): Telangana State was making rapid strides in all sectors with sound financial sources. Telangana is ranked No 1 in terms of growth rate as it pegged at 16.3 per cent surpassing all other States while national average of growth rate was 9.7 per cent, according to Finance Principal Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao. Neighboring Andhra Pradesh ranked fifth at 11.6 per cent growth rate, West Bengal ranked second with 13.9 per cent growth rate, Maharashtra stood third with 12.9 per cent growth and Uttar Pradesh ranked fourth with 12.6 per cent growth. The GSDP of the State was put at 15 per cent, he added.

Addressing the media at Secretariat here, Ramakrishna Rao said the Telangana State despite being infant, was making online payments of bills to development programs, schemes and irrigation projects. Even in State’s own tax Telangana is No 1 and it is ought to get exemption of GST from the Centre if the growth rate is below 14 per cent, he added.

There is no dearth of funds and the State government was able to allocate funds to all schemes besides paying salaries on time to the employees, pensioners and projects bills, he asserted. He also said the pending bills in the State are put at only Rs 3,474 crore and efforts are on to speed up the same for timely completion of the works of development programs and projects. The State was getting loans from institutions as per Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) limits and will push the growth rate to a new high, he said, adding that Rythu Bandhu bills are being paid to the farmers online.

Combined capital expenditure in 10 years from 2004-2014 is put at Rs 1,29,683 crore with Rs 54,052 crore Telangana share. While Telangana capital expenditure from 2014-2019 is pegged at Rs 1,02,140 crore within budget, Rs 62,379 crore outside budget and total is put at Rs 1,64,519 crore, he said.

“We have released Rs 5,200 crore for the flagship Rythu Bandhu program during Rabi season and the government used to pay bills up to Rs 2,000 crore. Of Rs 46,960-crore project cost, the government spent so far Rs 27,509 crore, he said, adding that Rs 659 crore was pending in the water scheme. Rythu Bandhu benefits will be paid from May last week to June first week. (Maxim News)