TS back on track in first quarter of financial year, debts remain

Hyderabad: The state government's revenue got back on track in the first quarter of this financial year (April-June 2022-23) after a gap of two years. However, the increased expenditure on salaries and pensions for employees and debt servicing remain the major concerns for the state government.

The state government suffered severe financial losses in the first quarter of both the previous financial years (2020-21 and 2021-22) due to the first and second waves of Coronavirus infections.

While the financial year 2020-21 started with Covid total lockdowns, the first quarter of the fiscal year 2021-22 was also hit by night curfews and other restrictions due to the second wave of Coronavirus infections.

Unlike the last two financial years, the first quarter of the current fiscal (2022-23) was not marred by any kind of disturbance and it was reflected in the state government's decent earnings.

In the first three months of his fiscal, the government revenue income crossed Rs 30,000-crore mark, with a monthly average of Rs 10,000 crore.

According to data available with the finance department, the government's revenue earnings stood at Rs 20,227 crore in the first two months of this fiscal (April and May). Of this, the tax revenue alone contributed Rs 18,751 crore, which accounts for 15 per cent of the total budget estimate of Rs 1,26,606 crore for 2022-23.

These statistics raised the hopes of the government of meeting the 100 per cent revenue earnings target for 2022-23 as 15 per cent of earnings projected in the budget was realised in just two months.

While GST collections remained the major source of revenue for the state government at Rs 6,223 crore in two months, VAT on fuel contributed Rs 4,872 crore, VAT on liquor contributed Rs 2,599 crore, the state's share in central taxes Rs 1,195 crore, other taxes Rs 1,274 crore, non-tax revenue Rs 913 crore, centre's grants-in-aid Rs 291 crore and loans Rs 274 crore.

The government, however, incurred heavy expenditure on salaries and pensions for staff, interest payments and repayment of loans in two months.

It incurred an expenditure of Rs 6,078 crore on salaries and Rs 3,017 crore on pensions for employees and retired staff, Rs 3,162 crore on interest payments, Rs 1,829 crore on repayment of loans and advances and Rs 1,368 crore to extend various subsidies like free power to agriculture and other sections, PDS rice etc.

Apart from these, the state incurred Rs 4,056 crore of revenue expenditure and Rs 725 crore of capital expenditure.