TS looks to tap Union Budget
Etala asks Central ministers to release state’s share of funds early
With the new financial year (2017-18) commencing from Saturday, April 1, the TS government has stepped up efforts to derive maximum benefit from the Union Budget.
The Union Budget was advanced by a month this year with the aim of spending Budgetary funds effectively from the very first day of the financial year.
The state government wants to tap maximum share of funds from various Central schemes, which will be implemented through fund sharing with state governments.
Finance minister Etala Rajender, who visited New Delhi on Friday to take part in the GST Council meeting, took time out to meet Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, civil supplies minister Ram Vilas Paswan, rural development minister Narendra Singh Tomar among others and sought early release of the Centre’s share of funds to implement various development and welfare schemes in Telangana.
Mr Rajender assured the Union ministers that the state government has evolved a mechanism to release its share of funds towards matching grant without any delay and start off the projects at the earliest, besides submitting utilisation certificates to the Centre every quarter to claim funds.
“The government has lined up several infrastructure projects starting from roads in villages to towns and cities, schemes to encourage caste-based occupations, extending Mission Kakatiya works to MNREGA, Mission Bhagiratha to provide purified drinking water to all households. All these schemes are entitled for the Centre’s support as per the allocations made in Union Budget. Instead of waiting for the Central assistance till halfway through the financial year or even later, it would be better to take up works from the start of the new financial year in April itself and submit the bills to Centre claiming financial assistance,” Mr Rajender said.
With the TS government being financially over-burdened from launching of several development and welfare programmes within a short span, it wants to utilise the Centre’s share to the maximum possible extent and ease its financial burden.