The State government continues to be in a tight situation in terms of raising finances for its flagship schemes in the new financial year 2023-24.
The government has to start disbursal of cash to the tune of ₹8,000 crore into the accounts of over 60 lakh farmers as first instalment of the Rythu Bandhu scheme from June even as payments under Dalit Bandhu, the ambitious scheme aimed at financial empowerment of Dalit families with a one-time grant of ₹10 lakh each, has been continuing. The government had budgeted ₹16,000 crore for Rythu Bandhu and ₹17,700 crore for Dalit Bandhu for the current fiscal.
On the expenditure front, the outgo on account of interest payments has been projected at ₹22,407 crore —around ₹3,500 crore higher than the previous fiscal’s ₹18,911 crore. Coupled with these is the expenditure on interest payments for loans obtained for the Kaleshwaram project which were pegged at ₹4,427.14 crore during 2021-22 and the same amount, if not more, has to be repaid during the current fiscal too.
