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The Telangana government led by Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday presented its annual Budget for 2023-24.
This is the last state budget ahead of the Assembly polls to be held later this year. For 2023-24, the state government proposed a total expenditure worth Rs 290,396 crore, of which revenue expenditure is Rs 2,11,685 crore and the capital expenditure proposed is Rs 37,525 crore. Telangana finance minister Thaneeru Harish Rao, in his initial remarks, while delivering the Budget speech today, said that, in conformity with the aspirations of all the sections of the society and giving equal importance to the development of rural and urban areas, Telangana is forging ahead with comprehensive development. The State government has set a target of extending oil palm cultivation to 20 lakh acres. A total of Rs 1,000 crore is proposed in the Budget for oil palm cultivation. "The moisture content in the air in Telangana has increased significantly following the construction of irrigation projects, renovation of tanks and construction of check dams. As a result, Telangana has become suitable for the cultivation of oil palm. Today, the country is importing palm oil on a large scale. There is good demand for oil palm in the market. By cultivating oil palm, farmers are likely to get a net income of Rs.1,50,000 per annum per acre," the finance minister said. Overall, the amount proposed in the Budget for the agriculture department is Rs 26,831 crore. The minister said agriculture and its allied sectors like fishing and aquaculture and animal husbandry have been momentum. The per capita income of Telangana is estimated to have increased from Rs 112,162 in 2013-14 to Rs 317,115 in 2022-23, which the minister said is higher than the national per capita income. In fish production too, the state has done exceedingly well. In 2016-17, the fish production was 1.93 lakh tones valued at Rs 2,190 crore. The production increased to 3.9 lakh tones which is valued at Rs 5,860 crore in 2021-22. In addition, the minister cited that the total area under cultivation has increased significantly from 131.33 lakh acres in 2014-15 to 215.37 lakh acres in 2020-21. The production of paddy increased three-fold from 68.17 lakh tonne in 2014-15 to 2.02 crore tonne in 2021-22. "Telangana government has purchased every grain produced by the farmers in the last eight and a half years," the minister said. Telangana is a major producer and consumer of rice. Further, citing that the irrigation facilities are available to 7,333,000 acres currently, the minister proposed to add another 5,024,000 acres of land that will be brought under irrigation in the next two-to-three years. (ANI)
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