Andhra Pradesh to impose extra taxes
Report highlights revenue gap due to additional budget released.
Hyderabad: To bridge revenue gap in the current fiscal, the state government is likely to impose additional taxes on the people.
According to a report prepared by the finance department to be presented at the two-day collectors’ conference, starting on Wednesday, in Vijayawada, the revenue gap at the end of current fiscal is likely to jump to Rs 9,729 crore against the Rs 4,868 crore estimated in the budget.
The reason for the massive gap is because of the release of additional budget to various departments. At the end of current fiscal, the total expenditure will be Rs 1,35,132 crore and the expected revenue receipts Rs 1,27,631 crore. The revenue gap between expenditure and revenue receipts will be Rs 7,601 crore.
The state government has released Rs 2,128 crore additional budget to the departments. In the report, the finance department suggested many proposals to the government to bridge the revenue gap.
According to it, the gap can be filled by the mobilisation of additional taxes and revenues, allowing corporations to borrow with potential to repay with their own resources with state government standard guarantee, amounts to be deposited by departments like Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), Genco and others, mobilisation of additional taxes and revenue through KPMG, funds to be received from the Centre for Polavaram and for capital city, revenue deficit grant for 2014-15 financial year, amounts due from the Tamil Nadu government for Telugu Ganga water and revisiting the amounts allocated in budget to allow space for additional committed budgets.
Meanwhile, about Rs 3,595 crore arrears are to be received from various sources. The state government has to receive Rs 240 crore under the salary component of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan, Rs 800 crore as salary component of SSA, Rs 468 crore as a share of Telugu Ganga Project from Tamil Nadu, Rs 1,804 crore under reimbursement of Polavaram, Rs 239 crore as principal receipt from Genco and Rs 44 crore as interest receipts.