Telangana in deep financial mess

Hyderabad: The state government is staring at a huge financial crisis given the dwindling revenues and mounting costs. The picture is so dismal that against the projected Rs 2,044 crore revenue surplus, there has actually been revenue deficit that as of October, which stands at a staggering Rs 4,640 crore.

Contrary to expectations, the fall is quite dramatic. Its revenue in the current fiscal till October is way below what it was for the corresponding period last year. The revenue from GST has fallen by 2.29 per cent and non-tax revenue is down by 50 per cent compared to 2018 October-end figures.

Since the TRS came to power in 2014, it is for the first time that revenue growth has fallen into minus, as it has in the current financial year even as revenue deficit is increasing every month. In its annual Budget, the government projected revenue surplus of Rs 2,044 crore. Today, it seems like an almost audaciously optimistic expectation considering that by the end of October, the revenue deficit was at Rs 4,640 crore. It was Rs 3,847 crore in September and Rs 2,354 crore a month earlier.

Due to economic recession, revenue from GST has fallen across the country, which implies that devolutions from Centre to the state have come down. The revenue through GST was Rs 14, 097 crore by the end of October while for the corresponding period in the previous financial year it was Rs 16,429 crore, which is a straight Rs 2,332 crore less. Total tax revenue by the end of October in the present financial year was Rs 43,777 core as against Rs 44,915 crore in the previous fiscal.

The government projected Rs 31,186.67 crore GST revenue in the 2019-20 Budget. In the last seven months, the GST revenue was 45.20 per cent while it was a healthy 47.99 per cent for the same period in the previous financial year.

The silver lining is in the form of revenue from excise, which has come to the rescue by already netting Rs 6,175.42 crore, a little over 56 per cent of the expected revenue of Rs 10,901 crore.

The government had projected Rs 15,875 crore non-tax revenue, and had earned Rs 2,442 crore (15.38 per cent) by the end of October against 31.14 per cent for the same period last year.

The government projected Rs 2,044 crore surplus by the end of current financial year. At the end of October, the figure stood at Rs 4,640 crore.

The government projected Rs 1,13,099.92 crore in the Budget and revenue expenditure at Rs 1,11,055.84 crore, thereby showing a Rs 2,044-crore surplus.

With things going awry, against revenues of Rs 51,355.65 crore, the revenue expenditure Rs 55,995.98 crore, which has led to a Rs 4,640-crore revenue deficit in the first seven months of the ongoing fiscal.