Hyderabad: The state government's revenue earnings bounced back in the last quarter of this fiscal (January-March 2021) after remaining low for the
first three quarters (April-Decemer 2020) due to the corona impact.
Enthused, the government has decided to take the last quarter
earnings into consideration while drafting the new Budget 2021-22 to be presented to the Legislature on March 18, official sources in the finance department said.
The decision was taken on the basis of instructions from Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao at the meeting he held with finance officials at Pragathi Bhavan to finalise the Budget proposals. Officials were asked to draft a realistic budget, based on the improved earnings in the last quarter.
This implies that there would not be much of a variation in the new budget size compared to the last year's budget though the state government's earnings took a nosedive in the first quarter (April-June 2020) in the context of the lockdowns and the subsequent slowdown in economy in the next two quarters (July-December 2020).
The CM had obtained complete data on the government's revenue earnings, sector-wise, from April 2020 to February 2021. The data showed that the earnings fell short by 28 per cent over the Budget estimates for 2020-21.
However, the earnings bounced back to pre-Covid levels in the last quarter (January-March 2021), rekindling the hopes of the state government on achieving higher revenue earnings in the new fiscal 2021-22.
The CM's review on the previous fiscal (2020-21) earnings found that, barring excise, none of the sectors could meet the budgetary targets. Against the Rs26,400 crore target set for commercial tax collections, Rs20,800 crore came in during the April 2020 - February 2021 period.
Earnings through VAT on excise surpassed the target. Against a target of Rs 11,439 crore, the collections were of Rs 11,675 crore. Coming to GST, Rs 22,205 crore was realised as against the Rs27,600 crore target.
While the target for excise earnings was Rs16,000 crore, the earnings touched Rs 13,241 crore. Earnings through stamps and registrations nosedived due to the lockdown from April to June 2020 and later too due to suspension of property registrations for three months from September to November 2020, to enable launch of the Dharani website.
Against the budgetary target of Rs 10,000 crore, only half -- Rs5,000 crore -- was met. Earnings through the transport department was of Rs3,443 crore against the Rs4,300 crore target.
Earnings from mines stood at Rs2,077crore against the target of Rs 5,600 crore. The target to raise funds through auction of government lands was Rs25,000 crore, but only Rs 800 crore was realised.
