Telangana government used 45% of revenue to pay salaries, pension and interest on debt

Hyderabad: During 2023-24, about 45% of the state’s revenue was spend on paying salaries, pensions and servicing debt, according to the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) tabled in the assembly by deputy chief minister and finance minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Thursday.
The state had a revenue surplus of Rs 779 crore and a revenue deficit of Rs 49,977 crore as of 31 March 2024.
In terms of income, GST was the major source of own tax income for the state.
As per the report, the state govt relied majorly on short-term borrowings, using the Ways and Means Advance facility for Rs 10,156 crore over 349 days and the Overdraft facitlity for Rs 35,425 crore for 145 days.
The proportion of the state’s own tax revenue to GSDP was 7.4%. There was an increase in revenue receipts by Rs 9,943 crore (6.24%) in 2023-24 as compared to the previous year. The total tax revenue (including share of Union taxes) increased by Rs 8,923 crore (7.05%), non-tax revenue rose by Rs 4,265 crore (21.81%) and grant-in-aid decreased by Rs 3,245 crore (24.62%) in comparison to the previous year.
It was also noticed that huge savings under the above grants indicated that the schemes envisaged in the budget had been given lesser priority during implementation, either due to the conservative approach of the govt to attain the fiscal targets or the shortfall was purely due to inaccuracy in the budget estimation process of the department, the report said.