Vehicles boost Andhra Pradesh’s revenue
Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Vijayawada have emerged as top revenue earning districts

Hyderabad: Increased sales of cars, two-wheelers and taxes on petro products have come in handy to boost the revenues of the Andhra Pradesh government at a time when realty and mining sectors have failed to reach revenue targets.
Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Vijayawada have emerged as top revenue earning districts in several parameters including sale of vehicles, liquor, cigarettes and real estate contributing the most to the state exchequer. Meanwhile Vizianagaram, Srikakulam and Anantapur are at the bottom of the table on all fronts, like in the case of GDP and per capita income.
The Transport department has witnessed an overall growth of Rs 513.55 crore revenue in this financial year, which is 14.5 per cent more than the corresponding period last year. Officials attribute this to increased revenue through life tax following more sales of vehicles post bifurcation and hike in user charges.
AP additional transport commissioner P. Srinivasa Rao said, “Around 14 per cent growth is witnessed in the life tax segment wherein the state achieved a revenue of Rs 224 crore due to increase in sales of cars and bikes. Recently, users charges for various services have been hiked and this added around Rs 7 to 8 crore more, and strict enforcement and booking of cases has also added an extra Rs 10 crore.”
Around Rs 1,383 crore has been realised through commercial taxes on petro products in the state so far this year. Petro products, from which most of the commercial tax revenue has been generated, are followed by liquor and cigarette sales. Vijayawada-2 topped with Rs 321.34 crore and Vizianagaram was at the bottom with Rs 21.22 crore commercial tax revenue.
The realty sector, however, has seen a slump in the state though the district of Guntur and its capital and Visakhapatnam are the most sought after. Whereas Guntur topped the state in the number of registrations, Visakhapatnam leads in revenue. Srikakulam and Vizianagaram are dull districts on the real estate front too.
Sale of beer in Andhra Pradesh dips by 16 per cent in 2015
Sale of beer has dipped in Andhra Pradesh according to the Chief Ministers’ official real-time executive dashboard. Sales have gone down by around 16 per cent in AP this year when compared to last year.
According to an official, AP still depends on TS-based beer manufacturing plants for stocks. East Godavari has emerged as the biggest consumer of whisky and other IML liquor whereas Chittoor topped in beer sales. Anantapur and Vizianagaram, which are at the bottom of the GDP and per capital income, drink less.
The state earned a total revenue of Rs 2,575 crore up to June 2015. An excise official said, “More beer manufacturing plants have to come up in AP and then they need not spend on inter state taxes. Several companies have come forward to set up beer manufacturing plants in Krishna district near Nandigama.”