AP Budget 2024 - 2025 Deceptive: Buggana Rajendranath

Tadepalli, Nov 11:

The YSRCP has termed the State budget for the year 2024-25 as highly deceptive, with no proper allocations to meet its grand promises. It was presented on a negative note, signaling what is in store in the coming days.

Speaking to the media here on Monday, former Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy said the budget is utterly disappointing. People who had eagerly awaited the fulfillment of the Super Six promises were left disappointed due to the lack of proper allocations.

Although the total outlay is Rs 41,000 crore more than the previous year's figure of Rs 2.95 lakh crore, the question remains: where will the money come from to fulfill the much-publicized Super Six schemes? He pointed out that the Rs 15,000 crore allocated for Amaravati is unclear—whether it is a loan or a grant is not specified, and there is considerable ambiguity. He also raised concerns about how the World Bank could provide loans to an area that lies within a flood zone.

Schemes like Talliki Vandanam, free bus travel for women, and Annadata Sukhibhava lack tangible allocations in the budget. Only a meager Rs 1.50 crore has been allocated for the Deepam scheme, whereas Rs 895 crore is needed. This yawning gap highlights the deceptive nature of the budget.

How the government plans to implement its welfare schemes with an increased budgetary allocation of Rs 24,000 crore is unclear. For Annadatha Sukhibhava, the allocation is insufficient, suggesting that the state is largely dependent on central schemes. The budget also fails to mention the promised Rs 3,000 unemployment stipend.

The allocation for each scheme is buried deep within the budget, requiring significant effort to find, whereas in our government, we always clearly mentioned the allocations for each scheme in the budget speech. The current budget refers to the previous government 21 times, drawing comparisons, but the revenue deficit has alarmingly increased compared to our tenure.

Even during 2014-19, power dues that were pending under the previous government were cleared by our administration, and this has been the template of the TDP government, whether before 2004 or during 2014-19, he said.

There has been a lot of false propaganda about financial discipline, and now the truth is coming to light, which clearly distinguishes their actions from ours, he added. They had criticized Delhi trips as being for the purpose of securing loans, yet their own document shows the loan component as Rs 6.46 lakh crore. However, during the election campaign, they exaggerated the figure to over Rs 14 lakh crore in an attempt to mislead the public, from Chandrababu Naidu to Pawan Kalyan to Purandeswari.

During his previous term, Chandrababu Naidu made false promises of waiving farm loans to the tune of over Rs 87,000 crore, in addition to dues owed to Self-Help Groups and the promise of zero interest loans, among others. During the elections, Chandrababu Naidu stalled the disbursement of the Aasara amount, which was only cleared after the elections, just before the results.

Speaking on the contrast in leadership quality, he said that YS Jagan Mohan Reddy only makes promises he can fulfill, unlike the coalition leadership.

When asked about the Leader of Opposition status, he said that since YSRCP is the only opposition party, the Speaker has the discretion to allot it, and the voice of the people should be heard in the House, as our party has garnered 40 percent of the vote share.