Hyderabad: In the current financial year the financial position in both Telugu states Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is running against budget projections. Till the end of December, both states had a revenue deficit. The Telangana state government had projected a revenue surplus of Rs 2,044 crore in the Budget at the end of the financial year. Against this, the state is running a revenue deficit of Rs 3,573 crore.
Andhra Pradesh projected a Rs 1,773-crore revenue deficit at the end of the current financial year, but at present the figure has crossed Rs 25,000 crore.
Both states are facing a financial crunch and the number of pending bills is increasing. Bills worth about Rs 10,000 crore have remained unpaid with each state. The TS government has directed all departments not to take up any work unless the finance department has cleared it.
By December, the total revenue receipts of the TS government were Rs 61,862.58 crore and revenue expenditure Rs 65,435.57 crore, which led to a revenue deficit of Rs 3,572.99 crore. In AP, the revenue earning was Rs 63,750.41 crore and revenue expenditure Rs 88,891.71 crore, which led to a deficit of Rs 25,141.30 crore.
Compared to AP, TS is in a better position. The TS government has achieved 54.70 per cent revenue receipts against its Budget projection while the AP government has achieved only 35.68 per cent.
With the implementation of liquor prohibition in a phased manner by the AP government, revenue from excise has fallen drastically. The AP government projected excise revenue Rs 8,518 crore in the Budget but the actual revenue was Rs 3,341.15 crore (39.22 per cent) by December end. The TS government had projected Rs 10,901 crore as excise revenue and it has achieved Rs 7,454.47 crore (68.38 per cent).
The capital expenditure was Rs 10,998.87 crore (63.67 per cent) against the TS government’s budget projection. In AP the capital expenditure was Rs 4,737.50 crore (14.67 per cent) against its Budget projection.
The AP government is spending more on welfare schemes than capital works. Both states are not getting tax devolutions from the Centre as projected in their budgets. Under GST, the TS government has received Rs 18,218.47 crore (58.42 per cent) against its projection of Rs 31,186.67 crore. The AP government has received Rs 16,786. 82 crore (46.01 per cent) against its budget projection of Rs 36,485.62 crore under GST.
The TS budget for the current financial year is Rs 1,28,330.51 crore and total expenditure by December was Rs 76,434.44 crore (59.56 per cent). AP’s total Budget is Rs 2,12,769.33 crore and the total expenditure was Rs 93,626.55 crore (44 per cent).
Only two months are left of the current financial year and to achieve the total Budget expenditure will be very difficult for both states.
According to present trends, both states will have to revise their annual Budgets by cutting the totals.
