This story is from December 1, 2018

Telangana assembly elections 2018: Rs1 lakh crore needed to meet Congress’s election promises

Telangana assembly elections 2018: Rs1 lakh crore needed to meet Congress’s election promises
Has the Congress promised the moon to voters in its election manifesto? At least financial analysts think so. With the Telangana state already reeling under a debt of over Rs 2.25 lakh crore, none of the major political parties can implement their poll promises without heavily borrowing from the banks.
mani

As per preliminary estimates by analysts, more than `1 lakh crore would be required to fulfill the promises Congress made in its election manifesto ahead of the state elections.
Interestingly, the total revenue (income) to the state government during 2017-18 fiscal was less than `90,000 crore. The Rs 1 lakh crore excludes employee salaries, and pensions of those who have retired.
TOI digs deep to check the ‘cost’ of Congress’ election promises.
No penal provisions to punish political parties
Financial expert and consultant with the World Bank, GK Rao, said the quantum of financial implications to implement the Congress promises would be huge. “Already, there are ongoing schemes, and the Congress has promised to either enhance the existing amount for many of them or has announced new schemes, such as unemployment allowance. Even the previous government did not have the money to implement its welfare programmes,” he said. “Unfortunately, there are no penal provisions in the law if political parties do not implement their poll promises.”

Not desirable to make such tall promises
Secretary of Forum for Good Governance and coordinator for Election Watch, M Padmanabha Reddy, said neither is it possible to implement such sops nor is it desirable to promise the moon to the electorate.
“There is no word in poll manifesto of any major political party that if voted to power they will control corruption,” he said. The state government has to pay Rs 20,000 crore per annum only towards interest on the over Rs 2.25 crore debt it has. “It should be mandatory for political parties to declare the cost of implementing their manifesto.”
Have plans for revenue generation: Congress
Telangana Pradesh Congress committee treasurer, Gudur Narayana Reddy, said that except the crop loan waiver, which would be done at one go, implementation of other schemes will be spread over the year. “The Congress is not going to steal money in the form of commissions from contractors, and this would save Rs 20,000 crore per annum. Our leadership sat down with a team of experts from finance, and agriculture, and formalised the schemes in the manifesto. We have our own plans to raise revenues. We had promised free power to farmers, reservations to Muslims, and delivered.”
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA