T'gana CM hails 2025-26 budget, opposition accuse govt of 'deceiving' public

Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Wednesday called the state budget as "people's budget," while the opposition BRS and BJP slammed the government, accusing it of "deceiving" the public with misleading figures.

The Congress government presented a budget of nearly Rs 3.05 lakh crore for the fiscal 2025-26, allocating over Rs 56,000 crore for the implementation of the party’s 'six poll guarantees', while expecting to raise Rs 64,000 crore through open market loans.

The budget estimates revenue expenditure of Rs 2.27 lakh crore and capital expenditure of Rs 36,504 crore, said Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, who tabled the financial document in the state Assembly.

Revanth Reddy in a post on ‘X’ congratulated all citizens of Telangana on the historic ‘Praja budget’ (people's budget) of great pragmatic intelligence, dexterity, competence, and commitment to people, development, governance and welfare.

The CM said after a decade of "darkness", the people’s Congress government is striving hard for last 15 months to put the state back on a path of stability, recovery, growth, prosperity, with democratic values and ethics of keeping promises.

"My colleague, Deputy CM and Finance Minister, @bhatti_mallu and the entire team, deserve our heartiest congratulations and support," Reddy said.

"Telangana is back on the right path, and despite the challenges, our hard work is ensuring an unstoppable #TelanganaRising #TelanganaBudget2025," he said.

Accusing the Congress government of "deceiving" people with jugglery of numbers in the budget, state BJP president G Kishan Reddy said the state's economic situation turned from bad to worse after the Congress took over the reins from BRS.

Kishan Reddy claimed that the budget estimates have been prepared without a basic understanding of the state's revenues.

The GST revenue was projected at Rs 58,594 crore in the 2024-25 budget but it turned out to be Rs 53,665 crore in the revised estimates, he said.

This means the GST collections declined by about 8.5 per cent and the state government should provide the reasons for the decline, he added.

The Congress government projected a revenue of Rs 25,617 crore through excise tax in 2024-25 and estimate an increase to Rs 27,623 crore in the current budget. This, he alleged, suggests that the Congress government aims to boost its revenue by encouraging liquor consumption.

The government is projecting its revenues by about 12 per cent more by increasing the estimates in every area, he said.

Charging the government with "deceiving" farmers, youth, students, women, and senior citizens, Kishan Reddy said the budget made no mention of the unemployment assistance as promised by the ruling party before the2023 Assembly elections.

Alleging a lack of correlation between the government's expenditure and revenue estimates in the previous budget, Kishan Reddy criticized the budget, saying the BJP condemns it for "ignoring" public welfare and development.

Meanwhile, BRS Working President K T Rama Rao slammed the Congress government’s latest budget, calling it a "complete betrayal" of Telangana’s people who are left with "zero gains."

Rama Rao in a release described the budget as a mirror reflecting CM Revanth Reddy’s “inefficiency, incompetence, and administrative failure”. He accused the government of "dashing the hopes" of four crore people who placed their trust in them and voted for them.

He further called it a "40 per cent commission budget" and claimed that it prioritises political greed over people’s welfare and vowed that BRS will fiercely oppose it.

Telangana’s poor, women, farmers, and elderly awaited the budget with hope, but promises like Rs 2,500 monthly for women under Mahalakshmi, Rs 4,000 pensions for the elderly, and "tula of gold" remain unmentioned, leaving these groups “shocked and disappointed”, he said.