Vijayawada: YSRCP Parliamentary Party leader V Vijayasai Reddy has termed the Union Budget 2022-23 as disappointing. Speaking to the media persons after the budget presentation YSRCP MP Vijayasai Reddy said that the allocation of Rs 1 lakh crore for capital expenditure seems huge but when it comes to the State’s share as per the set formula, Andhra Pradesh gets just 4.047 % which works out to only Rs 4K crore.
He said they had expected a booster dose but it appeared like all style but no substance. In case of the FRBM as well, while the set norm is not more than 3% of the GSDP for States, there is no parity with respect to Centre on the borrowings. The State is still bearing the brunt of wrong decisions of the previous Government, he said.
He citing the statistics said while the fiscal deficit of Union Budget was 9.3% for 2020-21, 6.9% for 2021-22, and is estimated at 6.4% this year, Andhra Pradesh registered a deficit of 5.48% and 3.94% during the past two years and yet there are restrictions on FRBM. He also said that the proposed budget for 2022-23 is nearly Rs 40 lakh crore, with an increase of Rs 4.5 lakh crore than that of the last fiscal and the Country’s growth rate for 2021-22 is at 9.2%. He said this is much better than any other country, especially while fighting Covid – 19.

Further, he appreciated the increase in capital expenditure by 35% than the previous allocations, where Rs 7.5 lakh crores has been allocated in the current budget which is 20% of the budgetary allocations. On interlinking of rivers Krishna-Godavari, Krishna-Penna, and Penna-Cauvery, he said that the State Government had already interlinked Godavari-Krishna Rivers with its own funds and thus, appealed to compensate the State.
State Government has been pushing for three development projects which include a dedicated freight corridor from Kharagpur to Vijayawada, freight corridor connectivity to ports in Andhra Pradesh and the Bhogapuram National Highway, but no announcements were made in this regard, he said. No announcements were made towards the development in healthcare sectors and no attention was paid towards research and completely ignored health insurance for the middle class people, he said.
Union budget on agriculture, he said that the Centre had completely ignored increasing the allocations of PM Kisan and failed to include tenant farmers under the scheme and also ignored paddy procurement policy and MSP for crops. MP stated that the shortfall in GST compensation of States was not addressed in the budget and appeals to extend the compensation period were ignored.
He welcomed an increase of the tax deduction limit of State employees to 14 percent, and duties’ reduction on shrimp production and aquaculture. YSRCP opposed the privatization of profit-making public sector units like the LIC, HPCL, VSP and the like. He said there was no encouraging mention of MGNREGS.