Telangana Overtakes Andhra Pradesh

Post the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh bifurcation, the two Telugu states have become individual economic entities. However, Andhra Pradesh had the upper hand in terms of revenue considering its vast resources but for the first time post bifurcation, Telangana has surpassed AP in generating revenues. These are reportedly the figures from the state’s finance department.

Revenue from GST, Sales Tax and Registrations are the primary source of our AP’s economy and they have decreased drastically in the last financial year as compared to Telangana. Below table shows the year by year revenue figures and overall, Telangana’s income has increased by Rs.1067 crore over AP for the financial year 2022-23.

For 2022-23, AP received Rs 36,048 crore in grants from the union government whereas Telangana received only Rs.13,179 crore. This means AP got Rs 22,869 crore more than Telangana yet the carved out state had beaten the estimates and surpassed the divided state.

There are multiple reasons for the drop in revenue like GST, sales tax and registration. In 2021-22, Telangana received Rs.34,489 crore in the form of GST while AP received Rs.34,262 crore.  And for the corresponding year i.e, 2022-23, Telangana’s GST revenue increased to Rs.41,888 crore, while AP’s GST remained at Rs.38,840 crore.

AP is lagging behind in sales tax too. Telangana earned Rs 29,604 crore through sales tax on petrol, diesel and liquor in the last financial year, while AP got only Rs 18,004 crore. This is Rs 2900 crore less than the sales tax achieved by AP in 2021-22. In liquor sales Telangana earned a revenue of Rs 18,470 crore whereas AP made only Rs.14,798 crore for the year 2022-23.

Compared to Telangana, the situation of AP in terms of income from stamp registrations is odd. In 2022-23, through registrations, AP’s revenue is Rs.8,022 crore and Telangana’s stands at Rs.14,228 crore. Compared to 2021-22, the income of Telangana registrations increased by Rs.2,000 crore, while the income of AP increased by only Rs.400 crore.

Telangana received Rs 19,553 crore in non-tax revenue in 2022-23 through the sale of government lands. Although the YCP government intended to increase the revenue by selling lands and started Mission AP Build in 2021. However, with roadblocks in the form of the High Court, the state government withdrew the idea. As a result, the AP government has pledged thousands of crore of debt at huge interest by pledging the land in banks. In 2022-23, AP received a non-tax revenue of Rs.6031 crore.

The only area where AP had encouraging revenues compared to Telangana is in the collection of tax from garbage, property tax, house tax, CESS on petrol and diesel, road development CESS. For the year 2022-23, AP made an income of Rs.9,109 crore and Telangana got only Rs.8,430 crore.