Andhra Budget: AP Chambers Welcomes Allocations, Seeks Details

Amaravati, Jul 23 (PTI) The Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation (AP Chambers) on Tuesday welcomed the 2024-25 Union Budget allocations for the state but noted that it lacked financial specifics.
Tabling the Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated Rs 15,000 crore as special financial support for the development of capital city Amaravati, and also vowed a “full commitment” to completing the Polavaram irrigation project apart from promising funds to improve infrastructure and develop backward areas.



Sitharaman said that funds will be provided for essential infrastructure such as power, water and railways in the Kopparthi node of the Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor, as mentioned in the portions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 on industrial development of the state.



Sitharaman said similar impetus will be given to the Orvakal node of Hyderabad-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor.



Further, she emphasised that additional allocations will be provided this year towards capital investment for economic growth.



However, she did not divulge the funding details of the Polavaram project and the sum set apart for infrastructure and backward areas in Rayalaseema and North Coastal Andhra Pradesh and others, but only spelt out that Rs 15,000 crore would allocated to build the capital city of Amaravati.



“For the first time since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the state was mentioned in the Union Budget. Rs 15,000 crore were allocated for the development of the capital city…But specific financial details were not mentioned,” AP Chambers President P Bhaskar Rao said in a press release.



AP Chambers Treasurer S Akkaiah Naidu said that the state has been waiting for the past 10 years to hear Andhra Pradesh-specific allocations, and it finally happened today.



Rao said that the budget has announced the setting up of 100 industrial parks across the country, and Andhra Pradesh should bag some of them.



Though the state needs Rs 1 lakh crore as a soft loan to develop on all fronts, the AP Chambers president said, there was no announcement on this aspect and also no increase in its fiscal responsibility and budget management (FRMB) limits.



AP Chambers Taxation Committee Chairman N Ravi Kishore welcomed the import duty waiver on three cancer medicines and appreciated the importance accorded to import duty reduction on mobile phones and chargers, among others.



Rao said that the budget focused on agriculture and allied sectors, employment generation, skilling, infrastructure, education and health and that, overall, it would support the progress of the state and the nation.