Hyderabad: Telangana received Rs 5,200 crore from the Centre under Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) last year which is just three per cent of the total state government expenditure pegged at Rs 1.84 lakh crore, an official release from Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's office has said. Senior officials informed the Chief Minister that the state has received Rs 47,312 crore funds under CSS in the last eight years, the release issued last night after the Cabinet meeting said.
Rao said that it is noteworthy that Telangana registered growth despite the funds due to the state under CSS and various schemes from the central government being decreased by (minus) -12.9 per cent. "In the last financial year, the state government has spent Rs 1.84 lakh crore out of which only Rs 5,200 crore has been received under CSS. It means that less than 3 per cent of the total expenditure of the state has been received funds under central schemes," it said.
Officials informed the cabinet that Telangana registered 15.3 per cent growth in its revenue during the current financial year. The state revenues would have been increased further and registered a growth rate of 22 per cent had there been no cuts in the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBM) limits, it said. "Chief Minister KCR opined that the state's growth rate is affected due to the lopsided policies adopted by the union government. If the central government achieved the progress equal to the Telangana, the state's GSDP would have increased by another Rs 3 lakh crore and the total would be Rs 14.50 lakh crore," it further said.
Telangana contributed five per cent of the country's income although the state's population is only 2.5 per cent in the country's total population. The officials informed the Cabinet that Telangana stood number one in the country with 11.5 per cent growth in state own tax revenue, it added. Meanwhile, the Cabinet decided to give 10 lakh new pensions in addition to 36 lakh pensions which have already been provided to the eligible poor. (PTI)
