Centre creating hurdles in Telangana’s development: State minister

Hyderabad: Telangana’s Finance Minister T. Harish Rao on Monday alleged that the Centre is creating hurdles in the development of the state.
Presenting the State Budget for 2023-24 in the Assembly, he said while Telangana has been achieving significant development through its own efforts, the Central government has been creating hurdles after hurdles.
He slammed the union government for reducing the state’s borrowing limit and said that in order to complete the irrigation projects within the shortest time, Telangana government resorted to off-budget borrowings well within the limits of FRBM Act.
“During the current year, based on our economic performance and borrowing limits, an amount of Rs 53,970 crore has been included in the Budget as borrowings. But the Central government unilaterally imposed a cut of Rs 15,033 crore and reduced our borrowing limits to Rs 38,937 crore. This decision of the Centre is totally unjustified and uncalled for. These kinds of cuts are against the spirit of federalism and have eroded the rights of the States,” he said.
Harish Rao alleged that the Centre has broken the tradition of implementing in toto the recommendations of the Finance Commission.
Also Read Telangana pegs 2023-24 Budget at Rs 2.90 lakh crore The 15th Finance Commission recommended a special grant of Rs.723 crore to Telangana and an amount of Rs 171 crore towards nutrition to ensure that the tax devolution should not be less than the amount of devolution received by the State in 2019-20. By not accepting these recommendations, the Central government denied Telangana of its due share in the Finance Commission grants.