AP presents vote-on-account budget in assembly

Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy Monday presented a tax-free, revenue-surplus vote-on-account for 2014-15 with an overall expenditure of over Rs.1.83 lakh crore.

“It is a great honour to present the budget for four consecutive years”, said the minister.

In his budget speech in the state assembly, he said the overall expenditure in fiscal 2014-15 would be Rs.183,129 crore, comprising Rs.115,179 crore under non-plan and Rs.67,950 crore under plan heads.

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The overall budget is more than 13 percent over 2013-14. With elections round the corner, the Congress government has presented vote-on-account instead of a full-fledged budget.

Presenting his fourth budget, Ramanarayana Reddy said estimated revenue surplus would be Rs.474 crore and fiscal deficit would be Rs.25,402 crore.

The finance minister presented the budget amid protests by legislators from Telangana over the manner in which the house passed a resolution, by a voice vote, Jan 30 rejecting the Telangana bill sent by the President to the legislature for its opinion.

The minister said that about 20,346 jobs were sanctioned in the present financial year. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has given its nod for filling about 98, 652 posts by direct recruitment.The budget speech last for only 15 minutes as Ramanarayana Reddy presented only highlights and laid his speech on the table.

He also announced that Andhra Pradesh was awarded the ‘Best state award for good administration’ by India Today magazine.

Anam added that the AP SC ST Subplan Act was brought in for the benefit of the people belonging to these sections.

Both the houses will not function on Tuesday in order to give the legislators some time to study the budget. Discussions on the budget will resume on Wednesday in both the houses.

Speaker N. Manohar adjourned the house till Wednesday. He called a meeting of Business Advisory Committee (BAC) to chalk out the agenda for the four-day session.

Endowments Minister C. Ramachandraiah tabled the interim budget in the legislative council. The council was also adjourned till Wednesday.

However,  TDP MLA Errabelli Dayakara Rao blamed the budget. “How can the minister present the budget which has no acceptance from half of the ministers in the state cabinet?”,asked the leader.

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