State finances get better with taxes

The financial condition of the Telangana state government is slowly coming back on the growth track after facing financial crisis due to lockdown restrictions for two months from April 20 to June 20 on account of Covid-19 second wave.

The revenue earnings of the state government increased with the lifting of lockdown restrictions completely from June 20. The earnings from stamps and registrations, excise, commercial taxes and GST have increased significantly over the past month with economic and business activities across the state coming back to normalcy.

Official sources in the finance department said the increase in market value of lands, flats, apartments, registration charges and stamp duty with effect from July 22 is expected to fetch an additional `300 crore per month to the government. At present, the government is earning nearly Rs 500 crore per month from stamps and registration department.

Taking these factors into consideration, the Chief Minister has recently announced new scheme Dalita Bandhu at a cost of `1,200 crore this year.

The government is upbeat at the realty sector to contribute major chunk of revenues to the state government in the remaining eight months of this fiscal (AugustMarch 2021-22) with the recent auction of Kokapet and Khanamet lands fetching nearly `2,800 crore at the average price of `50 crore per acre against minimum bid price of `25 crore per acre.

The government believes that the land auction signalled a realty boom ahead in Telangana, fetching huge revenues for state exchequer.

The state government is betting big on the Land Regularisation Scheme (LRS) to earn over `15,000 crore by clearing 25 lakh pending applications in the next three months that were already submitted to the government in response to the LRS announced in August 2020.

The state government resumed the process of LRS applications by issuing orders only on Tuesday directing all gram panchayats, municipalities and municipal corporations to begin clustering of applications locationwise and keep ready for site inspections. District collectors were directed to form teams for inspection and complete the process within 15 days.

THE STATE government resumed the process of LRS applications by issuing orders only on Tuesday.