Hyderabad: The TS finance department said that it is too early to comment on the revenue deficit and the actual position can be ascertained at the end of the year. Responding to a report published in these columns on the state’s financial position (TS revenue deficit crosses Rs 4,000 crore), the department said that the figures for the first half of the financial year were not actual indicators of revenue deficit.
It said the figures of the first half of the financial year can’t be projected in a linear fashion for the entire year, for various reasons. For example, the working season for infrastructure projects would be very limited in the first half of the financial year due to the monsoon. The working season commences only after the completion of the monsoon in September, it said. The capital expenditure would be more in the second half of the financial year when compared to the first half. The revenue collections would be more in the second half.
Devolution of funds from the Centre would also be more as the state gets two more installments in the second half of the financial year, the finance department said. The department said that report rightly observed that even in the last year there was a revenue deficit of Rs 2,156.83 crore at the end of September. The department said the revenue receipts of the state were understated in the account to end of September 2017 by Rs 670 crore, due to non-accounting of IGST receipts credited to the government in September. The finance department said that there is not much of an impact of imposition of the GST on the state government’s revenues as of now.
