Govt exploring options for raising resources

Land monetisation, long term lease of ORR stretches on cards to mobilise additional resources

August 25, 2019 11:32 pm | Updated 11:32 pm IST - HYDERABAD

With the government gearing up for its full fledged budget session that is likely to be advanced to first week of September, the focus is on additional mobilisation of resources apart from re-prioritising its spending.

Telangana government is exploring various options to mobilise resources for the ongoing infrastructure projects and also to take up new projects as it will have to indicate in the Budget for 2019-20 from where it will be mobilising additional resources in the wake of financial crunch the State is going through.

With the signals of economic slowdown and the devolution of Central taxes expected to come down on account of downward revision of growth rate and Central grants not likely for its flagship projects — Kaleshwaram, Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya for which State is spending thousands of crores every year — additional resource mobilisation has become imperative.

ORR toll lease

Apart from monetisation of valuable lands in the capital city and surroundings, government is also seriously considering monetisation of Outer Ring Road by leasing out the Toll Plazas for longer periods of 15 to 20 years, from present up to five years.

“This will help government get a substantial amount for the long lease period. This amount can be used to fund the ongoing projects and utilise the balance amount to take up new development projects through Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority and monetise them again to raise resources for capital expenditure,” sources said. In the eventuality of government going for long lease periods, then bigger players alone could bid for the contracts.

If additional funds are indeed mobilised, then government may take up Airport-Metro rail connectivity project, sources added.

GST revenue

What is going well for the State so far has been its Goods and Services Tax revenue and sales tax on petroleum resources and liquor. The GST revenue growth has been around 17% so far this year. Sources hope that even if the growth rate falls by a per cent or two, Telangana will still be among the States with good revenue growth. Under the GST Act, if the revenue growth rate is less than 14%, then the Centre will have to compensate the State to that extent up to five years.

Government sources said that the resource crunch has not affected welfare spending which has been resumed. There was some delay, for instance in the release of amounts to beneficiaries under Kalyana Lakshmi and Shadi Mubarak, but recently some 15,000 to 20,000 applications have been cleared. The committed amounts for the welfare programmes are charged in the budget and released through the green channel.

Government is hopeful of getting 90% of CAMPA funds, amounting to ₹2,500 crore, parked with the Centre. That amount will be utilised once working plans for the afforestation and revival forest lands were finalised and submitted to the Centre.

Government may also take a decision soon on enhancement of retirement age to 61 years from the present 58 years. Every year about 3,000 to 4,000 employees retire and the terminal benefits like GPF, Gratuity and encashment of leave etc., would cost the exchequer about ₹2,000 crore. It will help the government to defer the payments for three years and ease the pressure on its strained resources , sources added.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.