HYDERABAD: In a major relief to tipplers, Excise Minister Jupally Krishna Rao on Friday clarified that the state government doesn’t intend to hike liquor prices by increasing the Budget estimates.
Instead, the government is planning to “contain leakages and pilferages” in the supply chain of liquor and increase the revenue estimates.
It is pertinent to note that the state government has increased the revenue estimates from Rs 20,298.89 crore in Revised Estimates of 2023–24 to Rs 25,617.53 crore in Budget Estimates 2024–25.
Speaking to the press at Gandhi Bhavan, he also blamed the previous BRS government for raising revenues from liquor from around Rs 10,000 crore in 2014 to around Rs 30,000 crore in the 2023–24 Budget estimates.
Lashing out at the previous government, Krishna Rao said that the BRS regime never presented a realistic Budget and showed inflated revenue receipts and estimations.
He said that BRS president and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao terming the Budget 2024–25 as “gas and trash” is applicable to the Budgets presented by the latter’s government in the past.
Stating that the state government spent a whopping Rs 48,331 crore towards payment of loans and interest, the minister said that accounted for 17 per cent of the total Budget estimates.
Alleging that the BRS had pushed the state into a situation where the government has to borrow more to clear the loans, he accused the pink party supremo of belittling democratic institutions like the Legislative Assembly.
Referring to the former chief minister stating that he will rip the Congress apart in the Assembly, Krishna Rao said that KCR was in Opposition as the people of Telangana have already ripped him and his party apart.