The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Economy back on rails: Rosaiah

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 04, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Economy back on rails: Rosaiah

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JAN.3. The measures taken by the Government to put the finances on a sound footing have yielded good results with the overall revenue receipts growing by 16.83 per cent during April-November, 2004, as against 7.5 per cent during the same period last year, the Finance Minister K. Rosaiah, said here on Monday.

Launching the "Samachara Sravanthi" programme, he said the State's own tax revenues grew by 18.64 per cent as compared to the same period last year. The share of Central taxes increased by 26.14 per cent and total State's own revenue, including non-tax revenue increased by 17.53 per cent.

All this was achieved without levying additional taxes or increasing the tax rates, the Minister pointed out. He attributed the growth in tax revenues to plugging the leakages and better collections.

Priority areas

Refuting the charge that the Government was not spending anything just to present a rosy picture of the finances, he said it had accorded high priority to vital sectors like irrigation, revenue, food and civil supplies, agriculture and cooperation. The increase in amount for irrigation when compared to last year was Rs. 268.09 crores, revenue ( Rs. 194.8 crores), food and civil supplies (Rs. 149.07 crores), agriculture and cooperation (Rs. 57.4 crores).

Improvement of the fiscal health became the top agenda of the State Government ever since it took over in May. He said measures were taken to reduce the revenue deficit, fiscal deficit and primary deficit. Steps were taken to bring down non-plan expenditure and maintain fiscal discipline without resorting to ways and means advances.

Tax collection up

Mr. Rosaiah said the sales tax collection registered a 21 per cent growth with Rs. 6,689.47 crores realised till November as against Rs. 5,526.07 crores during the same period last year. Similarly, higher revenues were realised in excise, motor vehicle tax, stamps and registrations.

The non-plan expenditure amounted to Rs. 19,641 crores during April-November when compared to Rs. 20,866 crores last year. There was a negative growth of 5.87 per cent this year as compared to 34.09 per cent the previous year. The debt swap resulted in saving of Rs. 239 crores and the introduction of the Contributory Pension Scheme helped in reducing non-plan expenditure.

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