Hyderabad mints for Telangana at Andhra Pradesh cost

Hyderabad: Hyderabad as the common capital is benefitting Telangana at the expense of Andhra Pradesh. People travelling to Hyderabad from Seemandhra to meet AP ministers, officials and MLAs are paying around Rs 300 crore to Rs 400 crore every month to the Telangana exchequer in taxes.

According to one estimate, every day 400 to 500 private and public vehicles carrying 30,000 — 40,000 people from Seemandhra are coming to Hyderabad to meet AP ministers, officials and MLAs.

With their stays extending to three to four days depending on their work and with taxes and VAT being paid to the Telangana government for every purchase, from cigarettes to liquor, it is quite a big amount.

According to a survey conducted by the GHMC two-years ago, people travelling to Hyderabad spend Rs 50 to Rs 100 each. If AP had its own capital, the tax money would have gone to the AP exchequer. The joint capital is thus clearly a burden to the AP government.

There are around 4,000 state government employees working in Hyderabad including at the Secretariat. Around 1,000 IAS and IPS officers allotted to AP are also working in Hyderabad. House Rent Allowance (HRA) for government employees in Hyderabad is 30 per cent of basic pay while its 20 per cent in Vijayawada and Guntur cities. This means that the Andhra Pradesh government is paying 10 per cent extra in HRA for employees working in Hyderabad.

The maximum HRA limit in Hyderabad is Rs 12,000 while it’s Rs 8,000 in Vijayawada and Guntur. The AP government is thus spending an extra Rs 2 crore on employees’ HRA including for top-level officers.

The GHMC is also getting additional revenue in the form of professional tax from AP employees. Professional Tax was collected by the commercial taxes department earlier, but former CM had transferred it to the GHMC, that currently gets Rs 300 crore per year as Professional Tax.