Andhra Pradesh targets 29 pc revenue growth during current fiscal year

Amaravati, May 13 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh has set a revenue growth of 29 per cent during the current financial year, with Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday directing all the departments to take steps to increase the state’s revenues.

For 2025-26, an annual target has been set for all the wings, including Commercial Taxes, Excise, Stamps and Registration, Mines and Forests, to earn a revenue of Rs 1,34,208 crore, which is 29 per cent higher than the previous year.

During a review meeting at the State Secretariat with officials of all the revenue-generating departments, the Chief Minister said that from April 1 to May 11 in the current fiscal, there is a decline in the revenue from Commercial Taxes and the Forests, while the revenue from Stamps and Registrations has gone up steeply.

The revenue from the Centre, too, has declined by 26 per cent till May 11 during the current fiscal. During the same period in the previous financial year, the revenue from the Centre was Rs 17,170 crore, while this year it is merely Rs 12,717 crore, the officials informed the Chief Minister.

The State recorded an increase in revenue with the new excise policy. The excise income during 2024-25 was Rs 28,842 crore, which is 14.84 per cent higher than last year. However, compared to the Southern States like Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the excise revenue of the State is still less. The officers are estimating that the excise revenue this year will touch Rs 33,882 crore.

The Chief Minister issued clear directions to the officers to initiate stringent measures to check liquor smuggling into the state from the neighbouring states, besides taking steps to ensure that the liquor sales are conducted in the most transparent way. He said from the liquor supply to the retail sale, everything should be tracked through Real Time.

Hyderabad is generating 75 per cent of the total Telangana State revenue, the Chief Minister pointed out and asked the officers to find ways to increase the state revenue, as the state does not have that kind of a city. See to it that the state revenue goes up by strictly implementing all the policies adopted this year, he said.

The Chief Minister asked officials to conduct an in-depth study on the advantages and opportunities available to increase the state revenue and ultimately see to it that the state revenue grows to the maximum extent possible.

The Chief Minister told the officers to formulate plans after examining the revenues earned by the state in the past 30 years.

He was of the opinion that sectors like Electronics, Information Technology and Services will largely help in the income growth.

Stating that though Andhra Pradesh is much ahead of other states in gold purchase, the Chief Minister asked the officials to focus on why the tax revenue is not in line with the purchase. He was very particular that steps need to be taken to ensure that there is no tax evasion in the state.

He suggested that a data lake should be set up with the information from all the departments, and each department should have an Artificial Intelligence (AI) team. An AI-based tax system should be established in the next two to three months to provide services to taxpayers through AI tools, he added.

He asked the officials why the revenue from the Transport Department is very low in the state, while the receipts are increasing by the day in states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The reasons for this should be explored, and appropriate policies should be adopted immediately to ensure that the income increases.

The officials were advised to form a committee to sell the red sanders in the global market. Since red sanders worth thousands of crores of rupees belongs only to Andhra Pradesh, the Chief Minister felt that huge income can be generated by selling this. The proposed committee should submit all the details in its report on the current total stock of red sanders in the state and the total cost of these stocks, he said.

--IANS

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