The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : `State economy is back on rails'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 26, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

`State economy is back on rails'

Staff Reporter

Encouragement to the agriculture sector will improve things, says Rosaiah

ANANTAPUR: The Congress-led State Government has succeeded to a large extent in bringing the economy back on rails during the last one year, the Minister for Finance, K. Rosaiah, has claimed.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said they had never wished to do wonders in one year's time. But, the achievement during the period had given them satisfaction.

While the previous Telugu Desam Party Government had thought it better to give preference to information technology and a few other sectors neglecting agriculture, the Congress had the belief that necessary encouragement to agriculture would improve the State economy, as the society still was farm-oriented, he noted.

Criticises TDP

The TDP Government believed in pompous and non-planned expenditure. But, the present Government was a firm believer in planned expenditure, he said. Except for one year, the TDP had never followed the annual plan and effected cut in plan size from Rs. 400 crores to Rs. 1,000 crores plus during the remaining eight years. When the Congress-led Government assumed office in May last year the revenue deficit was about Rs. 3,000 crores (2003-04). The Government, however, was able to cut it down to 1,462 crores, Mr. Rosaiah said.

The State Government was firm on plugging the entire revenue deficit by March 31, 2008 and claim Rs. 5,000 crores incentive from the Centre, he said. The development parameters of the last year had helped the State get the highest-ever annual plan with Rs. 15,650 crores allocations.

Power sector

Against the general perception that subsidies to power sector would be multiplied due to the free power scheme to farm sector, efficient management had pegged down the subsidies to Rs. 190 crores by improving the quality of power, revenue collection and controlling losses.

As a result, the State's power sector had achieved top rating given by the Centre among all States, Mr. Rosaiah said.

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