VIJAYAWADA: As expected, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to go ahead with issuing an ordinance for meeting the expenditure in the first three months of the 2021-22 financial year, which commences on April 1.
This is the second time that the State government opted for an ordinance instead of presenting the full Budget in the Assembly. The State Cabinet gave its nod to the ordinance and it was sent to the Governor for approval.
Sources said that the physical copy of the ordinance was sent to all the ministers and all of them along with the AP Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, signed it.
Later, it was sent to the Governor. As the government preferred to conduct a full session of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature to pass the Budget in April or May as per the convenience, it had opted to bring the ordinance to meet the expenditure in the first three months of new fiscal.
It is learnt that the total expenditure in the first three months of the new fiscal is estimated at Rs 90,000 crore. Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in March last year, the government, which could not conduct the Budget session, brought an ordinance to meet the initial expenditure and later passed the full Budget in June 2020.
Though the COVID situation was under control in the first fortnight of March, the government could not conduct the Budget session owing to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) that was in force for the municipal elections.
Opposing the decision to promulgate an ordinance instead of presenting the full Budget, TDP senior leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu demanded conduct of the full Budget session or vote-on-account session.