Andhra govt presents annual budget with outlay of ₹3.22L-cr | Latest News India

Andhra Pradesh finance minister Payyavula Keshav on Friday presented the state’s annual budget for the financial year 2025-26 in the state legislative assembly with an outlay of ₹3.22 lakh crore.

It was the first full-fledged budget of the N Chandrababu Naidu government in the present tenure, after the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-led alliance came to power in June 2024. During the 2024-25 financial year, the state government presented only vote-on-account budget.

In the latest budget, the finance minister projected an estimated revenue expenditure of ₹2.51 lakh crore and capital expenditure of over ₹40,635 crore. The estimated revenue deficit is around ₹33,185 crore (1.82% of the GSDP) and the fiscal deficit is around ₹79,926 crore (4.38% of the GSDP).

While agriculture sector got the highest allocation of ₹48,000 crore, an amount of ₹47,456 crore was allocated for the BC welfare and school education sector got an allocation of ₹31,805 crore.

The budget proposes an allocation of ₹19,264 crore for the health, medical and family welfare department and ₹18,847 crore for the panchayat raj and rural development department.

However, the budget made allocations only for two welfare schemes out of the pending “Super Six” promises made by the TDP-led alliance before the elections. They are Thalliki Vandanam, a revised “Amma Vodi scheme” of the previous YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government providing financial assistance to women for sending their children to schools; and Annadata Sukhibhava, which is a modified YSR Rythu Bharosa, under which farmers would get financial assistance every year before the agriculture season.

Keshav said under the Thalliki Vandanam scheme, the budget has made an allocation of ₹9,407 crore. “Every mother will receive ₹15,000 per child in her bank account, irrespective of the number of school-going children. The government has decided to implement this scheme from May 2025,” he said.

Under Annadata Sukhibhava, farmers will receive financial assistance of ₹20,000 per year. The state will deposit ₹14,000 in three instalments in addition to the ₹6,000 provided under the central PM-Kisan scheme.

However, the budget did not mention about other promises made under “Super Six” guarantees such as free bus travel for women in RTC buses and payment of unemployment alliance of ₹3,000 per month to the jobless youth.

Keshav, however, claimed that the state government had fulfilled other promises made under “Super Six” in a short span of time since June 2024, including the enhancement of NTR Bharosa Pensions from ₹3,000 to ₹4,000 per month, reopening of 204 Anna Canteens for the poor, the provision of three free cylinders per year under the Deepam 2.0 scheme, and increased honorariums for Archakas, Imams and Muazzins.

He also said the state government had initiated the process for the recruitment of 16,347 teachers through district selection committees shortly.

The finance minister announced an allocation of ₹6,000 crore for the capital city project of Amaravati which, he said, will be developed as the people’s capital. With regard to Polavaram major irrigation project, he said the government would be spending ₹6,705 crore on the project this year. “The government has secured ₹12,157 crore from the Centre to support the first phase of the project. The project has progressed 73% so far and is scheduled to be completed by 2027,” he said.

Keshav said the government was presenting the budget in the backdrop of the financial destruction caused by the previous regime. “It has been a highly complex task, because the previous regime created financial chaos in every department,” he said.

The finance minister announced several new initiatives in the budget, including doubling of financial relief to fishermen during the fishing ban period from ₹10,000 to ₹20,000, an insurance-based health coverage of ₹25 lakh per family from the next financial year, free electricity for all government schools and supply of packaged fine rice to all the government schools for the mid-day meal scheme and social welfare hostels, starting next academic year.

He also announced relaunching of “Adarana” scheme aimed at supporting artisans, craftsmen, and other traditional occupations by providing them modern toolkits and gadgets to ensure sustainable income by improving their productivity.

Keshav announced yet another scheme of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for public-private partnership projects for up to 20% of the project cost to any department, beyond…