Revenue strained Telangana observes lower Excise revenue

After seven months, Telangana achieves 42.63% of the target set for the current fiscal. The percentage is lower than what Telangana earned during first COVID-19 wave

Telangana Government has registered slow down in the earnings through State Excise Duties, one of the major contributors to the State revenue, at the end of the first seven months of the current financial year (2024-25).

The percentage of earnings through State Excise Duties of the budget estimates, is lower than the percentage recorded by the State during corresponding period of 2020-21 - when the first wave of COVID-19 necessitated lockdown leading to closure of all establishments for several weeks.

The lower Excise duties is observed at a time when the State is falling short of revenue to fund welfare schemes and revenue and capital expenditure.

The State has reported revenue of ₹10,921 crore through State Excise Duties at the end of October. This is around 42.63% of the ₹25,617 crore projected in the budget estimates for the current fiscal. The lag in the collections can be seen from the fact that the State reported ₹13,695 crore, 68.88% of ₹19,884 crore projected in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal (2023-24).

Revenue through State Excise Duties in the fiscal 2021-22 too was impressive at ₹8,611 crore, 50.65% of the ₹17,000 crore projected in the budget estimates for the year, according to the provisional figures submitted to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. The State could realise 47.57% revenue through excise duties during April-October period in 2020-21 in spite of prevalence of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Senior officials pointed out that the previous fiscal’s high earnings was because of the auction of liquor shops and bars, conducted in alternate years, which fetched considerable revenue. “There is scope that inflated figures are presented for ‘State Excise Duties’ in the budget estimates resulting in lower revenue numbers. Excise revenue will not however go down despite some slowdown,” a retired official who handled the department told The Hindu.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, during a review meeting on the revenue earning departments in July this year, enquired about the reasons as to why revenue through liquor sales was not up to expectations during the April-June quarter despite increase in sales during Lok Sabha elections. Referring to the variations between supply and sale of liquor, he wanted the officials concerned to prevent scope for entry of non-duty paid liquor into the State so that revenue to the State exchequer was not affected.

He directed the Excise officials to set up CCTV cameras at every distillery and equip the delivery vehicles with GPS besides putting in place bottle tracking system and accurate maintenance of way bills of liquor delivery vehicles.

Published - November 25, 2024 06:08 pm IST