Telangana records revenue deficit till August

Hyderabad: Telangana state has recorded a revenue deficit in the first five months of the current financial year. According to the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report at the end of August 2018, the Telangana state government has a revenue deficit of Rs 5,203.93 crore. The state government projected a revenue surplus of Rs 5,520.41 crore by the end of the financial year 2018. 

The state government presented an annual budget of Rs 1,74,453 crore for the financial year 2018-19, and projected a revenue surplus at the end of the financial year. 

In the previous financial year, at the end of August 2017, the revenue deficit was Rs 2,812.85 crore, but in the current financial year by the end of August the revenue deficit has almost doubled. In the first five months of the current financial year the total revenue was Rs 34,663.29 crore whereas the revenue expenditure was Rs 39,867.22 crore, creating a revenue deficit of 5,203.93 crore.

Every year CAG takes serious note of TS’s finances and remarks that the state government has overestimated the revenue surplus. For example, in the 2016-17 financial year, the state government had said the revenue surplus would be Rs 6,778 crore but the CAG said that the actual surplus was Rs 1,386 crore. The state government simply rejects the CAG argument.

Every year the state government overestimates its own revenue to boost the total budget figure.  Sources said that in fact the state government's own revenue is increasing compared to the previous year but the state government fixes the targets of revenue earning departments by overestimating. 

The state government has to pay about Rs 5,000 crore to several contractors. The contractors have stopped all work due to non-payment of pending bills.