Telangana, which witnessed a sharp decline in the State’s own revenue growth in the first six months, is looking at various measures for resource mobilisation as well as bringing in austerity measures to face the impact of economic slowdown.
The Cabinet Sub-Committee on Resource Mobilisation headed by Finance Minister Harish Rao already held two to three meetings with all the stakeholders - officers, representatives from different sectors like real estate, business organisations, industrialists and heads of government departments, particularly revenue earning ones.
The committee is working on its report and it is likely to submit to the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao next week, according to sources.
The revenue of the State since its inception had been growing at 14% and above, way ahead of other States. However, after the first six months this year, the average revenue growth was just 2.64% over that of the corresponding period in the previous year.
To bounce back to double digit growth in State’s own revenue, the State has to grow at 18% in the next six months and given the economic slowdown at national level, it appears unlikely. “The financial year may end with not more than 5% to 6%,” sources estimated.
The committee may recommend some cut in the spend on schemes like Rythu Bandhu where the input assistance was given at ₹5,000 per acre for two seasons in a year to all the farmers irrespective of the size of their land holdings. One suggestion is to put a cap on landholding to about five acres. So far three instalments of input assistance was sanctioned, including for the recent kharif, though some farmers are yet to get their amount.
Another suggestion is instead of putting a cap on the acreage, cap the amount to each farmer’s family for the ensuing rabi season.
However it is for the government to examine the report of the sub-committee on resource mobilisation as well as rein in the expenditure in tune with the falling revenue and take a decision after weighing the political and economic implications. The stance of the government in not yielding to the demands of the RTC workers is because of its financial crunch, sources pointed out.
