Congress stares at fund hurdle to implement 6 guarantees

HYDERABAD: Congress party’s six guarantees and welfare schemes may have helped it to the winning podium, but the party is likely to run into several hurdles in fulfilling the poll-eve promises. While some schemes can wait, some promises however need a quick rollout with no time left.
Both Congressand BRS competed with each other by announcing various sops to people.

Congress, in fact, made more promises than BRS in the form of six guarantees like 2 lakh loan waiver to farmers, free travel to women in RTC buses, monthly financial assistance to women, 16,000 per acre under Rythu Bharosa, supply of gas cylinders at 500 and free power up to 200 units.
“Congress government may have to have to spend 1.2 lakh crore a year to implement various schemes, including existing ones. In addition to this, it will need 20,000 crore towards 2 lakh loan waiver scheme. The state government’s revenue and revenue expenditure for 2022-23 is almost same i.e 1,72,000 crore a year that includes state own tax revenue and Centre’s fund transfers while the state budget is about 1.9 lakh crore,” Lok Satta founder Jayaprakash Narayan told TOI.

He said the Congress government in Karnataka also made massive poll promises early this year, which work out to abut 50,000 crore. “But the promises made in Telangana are probably the highest ever in the country,” he said. “When Dalit Bandhu was launched, I opposed the scheme and asked the BRS government to invest the amount on Dalit empowerment, skill development, housing, etc.,” Narayan said.
“If the entire budget goes towards welfare schemes and salaries and pensions, there will be absolutely no funds for taking capital expenditure such as infrastructure works like roads, bridges and big projects,” a former chief secretary told TOI.

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Some corporations like TSRTC are already in financial doldrums and if free bus travel to women promise is implemented, the state government may have to give approximately 10,000 crore a year. Power discoms will have to get 5,000 crore a year towards free power up to 200 units and other power subsidies, an expert said.
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