Amaravati, Feb 14 (PTI) Striking a balance between welfare and development, the Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday presented a Budget of over Rs 3.32 lakh crore for 2026-27, up by Rs 10,000 crore from FY26, with an estimated revenue expenditure of Rs 2.56 lakh crore and capital expenditure of nearly Rs 54,000 crore.
While presenting the Budget in the state assembly, Finance Minister Payyavula Keshav said the estimated revenue deficit would be around Rs 22,000 crore (1.11 per cent of the GSDP) and the fiscal deficit is pegged at nearly Rs 76,000 crore (3.84 per cent of the GSDP).
“From the financial standpoint, we are yet to come out of the woods. Things are not all that rosy. I still have my times of struggle while sorting the financial mess left behind by the previous regime. But our intentions are uncompromising,” said Keshav.
According to the Finance Minister, the southern state will launch ‘AP (Andhra Pradesh) Wealth Fund’, which would become ‘big’ like the Norway and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds, to ‘run the whole state’.
“It is proposed to set up an AP Wealth Fund with a seed corpus of Rs 100 crore…” said Keshav.
Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for initiating the process to introduce legislation to accord statutory status to the greenfield capital city of Amaravati, he said administrative sanction was given for 97 works worth Rs 57,868 crore there.
As per FY27 budget figures, the state government is expected to raise Rs 76,000 crore through open market loans and Rs 19,000 crore from the Centre, while the GSDP during 2026-27 is pegged at Rs 19.75 lakh crore.
The public debt is estimated to be Rs 7.11 lakh crore in fiscal 2026-27, rising from Rs 6.35 lakh crore in FY26, Rs 5.68 lakh crore (FY25) and Rs 4.91 lakh crore (FY24).
Public debt as a percentage of GSDP is expected to remain 36 per cent in the financial year 2026-27, maintaining the same level seen in the past two financial years and 35 per cent in FY24 at Rs 4.91 lakh crore.
The budget proposed Rs 51,021 crore for the BC component, while School Education has been allocated Rs 32,308 crore.
It allocated Rs 19,306 crore for the Health, Medical & Family Welfare Department.
The Panchayati Raj & Rural Development Department, held by Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan received nearly Rs 23,000 crore.
Allocations to major departments include Rs 18,224 crore for Water Resources, followed by Municipal Administration and Urban Development (Rs 14,539 crore), Agriculture (Rs 11,745 crore), Social Welfare (Rs 11,119 crore) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) Welfare (Rs 10,700 crore).
Regarding welfare schemes, the southern state has earmarked Rs 27,719 crore for the NTR Bharosa scheme, which offers Rs 4,000 welfare pension to eligible beneficiaries per month.
Besides, Rs 2,601 crore has been allocated to Deepam 2.0 scheme, which offers three free cooking gas cylinders per annum and Rs 2,320 crore as economic support to various communities.
Stree Shakti, a free bus journey scheme for women received an allocation of Rs 1,420 crore, and Rs 600 crore was designated for power subsidies for weaker sections.
Thalliki Vandanam, which offers Rs 15,000 rupees per annum per school-going child, got Rs 9,668 crore, followed by Woman and Child Welfare (4,581 crore) and scholarships (Rs 3,838 crore).
Annadata Sukhibhava, which offers Rs 20,000 per annum to farmers, received an allocation of Rs 6,600 crore.
Likewise, Higher Education received Rs 2,566 crore, Rs 707 crore has been set aside for PM Schools for Rising India and Rs 438 crore for Youth Advancement and Sports, among others.
Other key allocations include nearly Rs 10,000 crore to major irrigation projects (other than Polavaram Project), Polavaram project (Rs 6,105 crore) and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (Rs 1,927 crore), among others.
Also, the budget provided Rs 8,365 crore for the rural employment guarantee programme Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Grameen (VB G-RAM-G) scheme.
Further, it allocated Rs 5,451 crore for Housing (Urban and Rural) and Rs 4,000 crore each for Dr NTR Vaidya Seva Trust and Jal Jeevan Mission, among others.
Keshav said the TDP-led government aims to provide 25 lakh house pattas and houses to EWS under the PMAY (U) – NTR Nagars scheme.
Among 10 major initiatives, the budget listed free power to weavers, city economic regions specific to Visakhapatnam, Amaravati and Tirupati, Rayalaseema Global Horticulture Hub, free bus service for disabled men, quantum computing, 3,000 new police vehicles and others.
Highlighting that the government has developed an economic master plan for the Visakhapatnam Economic Region (VER), Keshav said it entails seven growth drivers, which translate into 41 high-impact projects with a proposed investment of Rs 28,000 crore, which also includes metro rail projects.
He noted that the Rayalaseema Integrated Development Plan includes expansion of the horticulture area from 8.41 lakh hectares to 14.41 lakh hectares by 2030.
In his speech, the minister said a short span of two years is certainly not enough to rebuild a state, which has faced catastrophic events since its inception, including the “misrule” from 2019-24. PTI STH GDK ROH
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