The drought and floods that hit Andhra Pradesh in the first half of 2009 have impacted the state’s revenue collection.
Though the government had set a target of 25 per cent increase in commercial taxes during the current financial year over last year, it has so far achieved only 6 per cent.
Commercial taxes and excise duty are the two important revenue generating channels for the state government.
Revenue collections during the nine-month period from April to December remained flat. However, with signs of economy bouncing back, the government realised better revenues during January. “So far, January has recorded the best collections this fiscal,” revenue principal secretary Asutosh Mishra said.
Speaking to Business Standard, he said the state in ten months ending January realised Rs 19,814 crore through commercial taxes as against its set target of Rs 23,335 crore for 2009-10. This is 6 per cent increase as compared with Rs 18,700 crore during the corresponding period last year.
The January figure stood at Rs 2,176 crore, up 11.07 per cent, as compared with Rs 1,959 crore during the same period last year.
Of the Rs 19,814 crore, commercial territories contributed Rs 9,593 crore, public sector units Rs 341 crore, petro products Rs 5,387 crore and liquor accounted for Rs 3,668 crore. The department also made Rs 790 crore from the various Acts- entertainment, professional, betting and cess- apart from recovering arrears of Rs 35 crore.
It also received Rs 540 crore from the Centre as compensation for migrating to value-added tax.
Meanwhile, in the excise segment, the state collected Rs 4,727 crore in ten months, up 12.8 per cent from Rs 4,189 crore during the corresponding period last year. In January, the collection stood at Rs 417 crore as compared with Rs 340 crore during the same period last year, up 22.64 per cent.
While licence fee contributed Rs 1,415 crore, excise duty on liquor was Rs 1,453 crore in this segment. Andhra Pradesh Beverages Corporation Limited paid Rs 1,792 crore and Rs 66 crore came from other sources.
The state government recently increased the tax on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) from 4 to 16 per cent, which will fetch an additional Rs 120 crore to the state exchequer.
The state realised revenues of between Rs 37 crore and 40 crore a year on account of this when the tax was four per cent. Prior to February 2008, AP levied a 33 per cent tax on ATF and realised about Rs 300 crore per annum.
Revenues during the five-year period from 2004-2008 grew at 19 per cent but declined to 10 per cent in 2008-09 due to the global economic slowdown that started in October 2008. In the current fiscal, the growth rate was down to five per cent for the nine-month ending December 2009.
