Taxes have dried up in Haryana: FM

Haryana Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu today charged the previous Congress government in the state with lack of governance saying taxes had dried up and their base shrunk during the 10-year rule.
The resultant shortfall in revenue generation and decline in the share of state's own revenue in total receipts made the state over-dependent on Central grants and borrowings, he said.
Releasing a White Paper prepared by the state government, Abhimanyu also said there was a declining trend in both the state's own tax revenue and non-tax revenue between 2004-05 and 2013-14.
"This is indicative of systemic weaknesses that plagued the system under the previous government, lack of governance, and suboptimal resource mobilisation in the state," he added.

Referring to the trends in revenue receipts for the period 2004-2014, the Finance Minister said that the state's own revenue as a share of total revenue decreased from 89.5 per cent in 2004-05 to 80.4 per cent in 2013-14, indicating a perceptible decline in the state's ability to raise resources.
On the contrary, the share of Central grants in total receipts which was 4.9 per cent in 2004-05 soared to 10.9 per cent in 2013-14, he said.

He said about 90 per cent of the receipts were spent on revenue expenditure and 10 per cent on capital expenditure.
"It indicates that uncontrolled growth in revenue expenditure came in the way of a sustained growth of capital expenditure", the FM said.

The major component of state's own revenues is tax revenue, where the share has remained stagnant and flat at about 67 per cent, he said.
He said the percentage of tax revenue to GSDP declined from 7.8 per cent in 2004-05 to 6.6 per cent in 2013-14, adding the percentage should have ideally gone up.
"Even if it had been sustained at the same level, the state would have earned additional revenue of Rs 20,000 crore," he told reporters.
The dip in the contribution of the industrial sector to the GSDP dragged down revenue, employment generation and growth of the state's economy, he said.

Agriculture and Allied Sector, Capt Abhimanyu said, registered negative growth during 2005-06, 2007-08, 2009-10 and 2012-13 in Haryana even as the growth rate in this sector remained positive during the corresponding years at the all-India level.