Former minister and senior BJP leader Eatala Rajender has accused the TRS government of presenting a budget which was a “pack of lies” where the figures look fantastic on paper in the over ₹2 lakh crore budget proposals with “a lot of jugglery done in hiding the facts”.
The government was totally dependent on liquor sales to the tune of ₹37,000 crore hence there was an overdrive to push up the consumption oblivious to the health costs on the population, especially the young, he lamented. Referring to the criticism against the Centre in the speech, he sought to remind that it was the Centre that had permitted the states to breach the FRBM Act - Fiscal Responsibility Budgetary Management Act, to loans up to 5% from the earlier 3% due to the pandemic.
Tax devolution to States too has been enhanced to 41% after the Modi government had come to power in 2014 much more than the earlier Congress led regime which was 30%, he claimed. “It would have been nice if finance minister T. Harish Rao mentioned that the Centre had allowed them to raise more loans and given more funds,” he said.
Mr. Rajender said the budget sesssion itself began with a wrong precedent in not allowing the Governor to give the inaugural address to the budget session. “There is an established parliamentary conventions as per the Constitution and it is unfortunate the TRS regime decided not to follow, I hope others do not take this example”, he added.
The speaker played a “mute spectator” when the rights of the MLAs were “trampled” when he along with his two other BJP MLAs were suspended for the entire session, he regretted.
