The sluggish pace of growth in the revenue receipts in Telangana continued at the end of the third quarter of the current financial year with overall revenue receipts pegged at ₹1.25 lakh crore, 57% of the ₹2.16 lakh crore projected in the budget estimates.
Tax revenue has shown some improvement since the past few months reaching ₹99,693 crore, 65.37 % at the end of October-December quarter against ₹1.52 lakh crore projected in the budget estimates for the entire fiscal. As expected, revenue through State Excise duties continued to be buoyant at ₹16,500 crore against ₹19,884 crore budget estimates, marking 82.98 % achievement.
Another area where there was significant jump in the revenue at the end of the third quarter was non tax revenue which crossed ₹20,000 crore to reach ₹20,331 crore. This is 89% of the ₹22,808 crore revenue projected in the budget estimates. Revenue through Goods and Services Tax, Registration and Stamps and other sectors remained stable, but the anticipated revenue in the form of Grants in Aid and Contributions continued to evade the State this year too.
While the budget estimates pegged the revenue through grants in aid and contributions at ₹ 41,259 crore for the current fiscal, the actuals at the end of December quarter stood at ₹4,978 crore, a meagre 12.07 %. On the expenditure front, repayment of interest accounted to ₹16,998 crore at the end of third quarter which is 75.86% of the ₹22,407 crore projected for the year. Payment of salaries and wages (₹29,377 crore) as well as pensions (₹ 12,489 crore) too were major contributors under expenditure with still a quarter to go for the completion of the financial year.
The State finances reported a revenue surplus of ₹323 crore at the end of the third quarter as against ₹4,881 crore projected for the year, while fiscal deficit reached ₹36,536 crore against the ₹56,062 crore projected for the fiscal. The State’s primary deficit at the end of December quarter stood at ₹19,537 crore, 58 % of the ₹33,655 crore projected for the fiscal.
