Telangana Budget to be presented in Assembly on Monday

Hyderabad, Feb 5:  The Telangana cabinet on Sunday approved the State Budget 2023-24, which will be tabled in the state Assembly on Monday.

The cabinet met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao at Pragati Bhavan, the official residence of the Chief Minister.

The State cabinet discussed and approved the budget proposals, said the Chief Minister's Office.

State Finance Minister, T. Harish Rao will present the Budget in the state Assembly on Monday.

With Assembly elections scheduled to be held towards the end of this year, this will be the last Budget of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government in its present term.

Ahead of the upcoming state Assembly elections, the government is likely to announce some new proposals and increase the allocations to various departments.

The overall size of the budget is likely to exceed Rs three lakh crore. Last year, the Finance Minister had presented the 2022-23 Budget with an outlay of Rs 2.56 lakh crore.

The Budget session of the State Legislature began on February 3 with Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan's address to the joint session of Legislative Assembly and Council.

The Budget for 2023-24 was approved by the Governor after an unprecedented rift between the Raj Bhavan and the BRS government. The latter had last week approached the Telangana high court, seeking direction to the Governor to approve the Budget as Raj Bhavan had not responded to the request to clear the relevant file.

The division bench of the high court headed by Chief Justice Ujwal Bhuyan, however, asked both the sides to resolve the issue amicably and not to drag the court into it. On the court's advice the counsels of both the parties held talks and agreed to resolve the deadlock.

While the state government agreed to begin the Budget session with a speech by the Governor, the latter consented to approve the Budget.

Last year, the Budget session had commenced without the Governor's address, kicking up a massive row between the Governor and the KCR government.

The Governor had taken exception to the government's action but the latter defended the move on the ground that it was not a new session but a continuation of the previous session.