Demonitisation had little impact on Telangana: Eatala

Finance Minister Eatala Rajender claimed that the demonitisation of high denomination currency notes had a very little impact on the Telangana State.

Addressing a press conference after presenting annual budget for 2017-18 in Assembly on Monday, the Finance Minister said that although there was a decrease in revenues from Stamps & Registration and Vehicle Taxes due to demonitisation, the same was recovered from other departments.

Eatala claimed that all the sectors in Telangana have been growing at a rate which is much higher than the national average. Furnishing statistics, he said that the growth of Primary Sector including Agriculture & allied and Mining was 17.2% while national growth average was 9%.  Similarly, Secondary Sectors like manufacturing, electricity and construction registered a growth rate of 9.8% as against the All India average of 8.7%.

While the per capita income has grown by 12.6%, the GSDP was at Constant (2011-12) prices was 10.1%. He said that the GSDP was 11.7% in 2012-13, 12.6% in 2013-14, 13.1% in 2014-15, 12.6% in 2015-16 and now it has escalated to 13.7%, the Finance Minister said.

Eatala said special emphasis has been laid on sectors like Agriculture, Irrigation, Social Sector including Health, Women and Child Development, Welfare of Scheduled Castes & Tribes, Minorities and Infrastructure.

Of Rs. 88,038.80 Crore under Scheme Expenditure, Irrigation Sector got the lion's share of Rs. 23,675.73 Crore followed by Aasara Pension - Rs. 5330 Cr, Power Subsidy - Rs. 4,484 Cr, Debt waiver to farmers - Rs. 4,000 Cr, R&B Roads - Rs. 3,321 Cr, Mission Bhagiratha - Rs. 3,000 Cr, MGNREGA - Rs. 3,000 Cr and Scholarships including Fee Reimbursement - Rs. 2,858 Cr.

The State Government is expecting Central Grants of Rs. 26,857.67 crore in 2017-18. They include Rs. 11,800 towards Special Package, Rs. 10,962.19 Crore under Centrally Sponsored Schemes, Rs. 1,178.48 Crore towards Finance Commission Grants and Rs. 2,377 Crore under Other Grants.