Assembly polls: Telangana must juggle finances without dropping the ball

Balancing freebies with fiscal prudence remains a critical challenge for the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi. INDIVJAL DHASMANA writes

Political parties are making promises of freebies in Telangana, similar to those in the other four poll-bound states. However, there is a crucial difference between Telangana and other states: the former is the strongest financially in terms of tax revenues and can readily afford these freebies.

For the past seven years, the state’s own tax revenue has accounted for over 60 per cent of its total revenue receipts, including projections for 2022–23 and 2023–24.

Despite this financial strength, Telangana experienced a revenue deficit in the first three years of the second term of Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao’s government. In