The Telangana government is facing an arduous task in fulfilling the six guarantees that the Congress promised before being voted to power, thanks to the slow pace of growth in revenue receipts.
The government has been struggling to raise resources for meeting its immediate commitments including payment of salaries, pensions, and interests. The seriousness of the situation can be gauged from the fact that close to half the revenue receipts are being spent on these three heads alone, according to the provisional figures released by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).
While tax revenue for the current fiscal is projected at ₹1.52 lakh crore in the budget estimates, expenditure on account of salaries/wages (₹38,627 crore), pensions (₹13,024 crore), and interest payments (₹22,407 crore) account for ₹74,058 crore. This is in addition to subsidies, which amount to ₹12,958 crore. The CAG figures show that the State’s overall revenue receipts at the end of February stood at ₹1.51 lakh crore, 70.16% of ₹2.16 lakh crore of the budget estimates, with just a month left for the conclusion of the financial year.
