HYDERABAD: The Telangana state government had to contend with the Centre's substantial reductions in Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) loans during the first half of this fiscal year (April to September 2022-23) as well as the Center's significant reductions in grants and Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), which forced them to change their plans for the TS Budget for 2022–23.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) has enlisted the help of chief secretary Somesh Kumar and financial officials to restore the state's finances while minimising burden on the populace and make up for losses caused by Telangana's funding cuts from the federal government in the first half of this fiscal year.

For this fiscal year, the Center has reduced loans by more than Rs 15,000 crore. In the first half of this fiscal year, the state government anticipated receiving Rs 41,002 crore from the Centre in the shape of grants and CSS programmes, but has only received Rs 5,687 crore. Funding reductions were made by the Union Ministry of Rural Development for the National Rural Livelihood Mission and the Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP).

Following this, the Chief Secretary, K. Ramakrishna Rao, the finance special chief secretary, and other top finance department officials sprang into action to support the state government's income earnings.

According to official sources, the CS has recommended a number of measures to the CM and the cabinet subcommittee on revenue mobilisation, which is chaired by finance minister T. Harish Rao, in order to increase state income without putting undue strain on the populace. According to reports, the CM praised CS for his "realistic ideas" for generating cash and instructed him to proceed with carrying them out in collaboration with the relevant departments.

According to reports, he offered ideas for how to get back the state's part of the prized Hyderabad properties that Central PSUs had previously received land allocations from defunct state governments.

Six Central PSUs in and around Hyderabad, including Hindustan Cables Limited, Hindustan Fluorocarbons Limited, Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited, Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), Cement Corporation of India Limited (CCI), and Ordinance factories, have received land allocations totaling about 7,200 acres from the state governments in Undivided AP. 

These open lands are reportedly worth more than Rs 40,000 crore on the open market. These land parcels would bring in a tonne of money for the state government if they were recovered and put up for auction.

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