The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday announced that Amaravati will be a self-financing capital city project without any state budgetary assistance as Finance Minister Payyavula Keshav presented an annual Budget for 2025-26 with a total outlay of Rs 3,22,359 crore. The revenue expenditure was estimated at Rs 2,51,162 crore and the capital expenditure at Rs 40,635 crore. He also slammed the YSRCP regime in his speech, claiming the state witnessed steep drops in industry and employment.

The previous YSRCP government had stopped the capital city project, citing a lack of funds to spare for Amaravati, even though N Chandrababu Naidu, then Opposition leader, had repeatedly stated that it was a self-financing project. Presenting his first full Budget after the coalition government came to power, Payyavula Keshav presented the same argument as his leader.

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It may be mentioned that in the 2024-25 Union Budget, the Centre had promised Rs 15,000 crore to support the development of a capital city. In his Budget speech, the Finance Minister said, “However, our government, without directly allocating from state resources, is restarting the capital city project. Financing for Amaravati has been secured through the Government of India, along with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and HUDCO. With this, Amaravati has proved to be a self-financing capital city project without state Budget assistance, as announced by the Hon’ble Chief Minister.”

However, the Budget in Brief document allocated Rs 6,000 crore to Amaravati under the Economic and Technological Advancement head. Keshav went on to state in his Budget speech that Amaravati will not only be developed as a city but as a growth engine leading the development of the state, at par with Telangana’s Hyderabad and Maharashtra’s Mumbai. Another key project of Naidu, the Polavaram dam, was allocated Rs 6,705 crore. The Budget speech also mentioned the Godavari Banakacherla project, another ambitious river-linking project, but there was no allocation mentioned against it.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said, “Instead of viewing the budgetary proposals as mere allocations to the respective departments, we have allotted funds for the overall development of the state. We have placed before the people positive and progressive budgetary proposals that will completely reform the status of the state.”

The YSRCP, however, criticised the Budget, with former minister Botsa Satyuanarayana stating, “All I see in this Budget is praise for the Chief Minister and his son (Nara Lokesh) and blame for the previous administration.” He added that the government had failed to deliver on its poll promises.