Harish Rao called the Congress budget a bundle of lies

Former Finance Minister and senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao termed the Congress budget a bundle of lies and alleged that the budget was "full of lies, deception, and unrealistic claims." He claimed that Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka's budget speech was a "cut and paste" affair with paragraphs repeated from last year's speech.

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Bhatti budget is a big fake budget “Bhatti budget is a big lie budget,” said Harish Rao, speaking to reporters after Bhatti presented the budget in the Assembly on Tuesday. Questioning other estimates, Harish Rao pointed out that Telangana received Rs 15,729 crore under centrally sponsored schemes (CSS), while it was Rs 5,966 crore last year. Rs 3,000 crore was claimed for MNREGA, while the actual allocation last year was just Rs 2,600 crore. “How can this be possible?” he said. “This year the Centre’s outlay for MNREGA is Rs 86,000 crore, same as last year. The CSS outlay for the entire country is Rs 26,000 crore.”

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Interest-free loan limited to Rs 5 lakh Harish Rao said the government has limited the interest-free loans given to women self-help groups to Rs 5 lakh, which means more borrowing will attract an interest rate of 12.5 per cent. “The government initially promised Rs 1 lakh crore in interest-free loans, but reduced it to Rs 20,000 crore. If the government is really committed to interest-free loans, the entire loan amount should be interest-free,” he said. Harish Rao said Bhatti had claimed that the previous BRS government did not issue new ration cards, but the truth is that 6.47 lakh new ration cards were issued. “Today’s budget speech is an example of lies and deception. This budget is nothing but a financial illusion filled with manipulated figures and false promises,” Harish Rao said.