VIJAYAWADA: Responding to Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s comments that the GST collection of the State is more than the national average, BJP Political Feedback Pramukh Lanka Dinakar on Saturday questioned why debt is rising disproportionately when income is increasing.
The Chief Minister, in a recent review meeting, said the GST collection of Andhra Pradesh was 28.79 per cent against the national average of 27.8 per cent.
“The fact is that Maharashtra posted the highest state-wise GST collection for September 2022 with Rs 21,403 crore. It is followed by Karnataka with Rs 9,760 crore, Gujarat with Rs 9,020 crore, Haryana with Rs 7,403 crore and Tamil Nadu with Rs 8,637 crore. In addition to this, States or Union Territories such as Bihar (67 per cent), Nagaland (61 per cent) and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (69 per cent) posted impressive year-on-year growth in GST revenue,’’ he said and asked where is the position of Andhra Pradesh in terms of GST collection as well as year-on-year growth for September.
Jagan should take into consideration to evaluate of the performance of the States, which have achieved the best results in terms of GST collection and growth, but not average figures after adjusting the lower collections, lower growth and negative growth States, he maintained.
While the revenue target till September 2022 was Rs 27,445 crore, the State had collected Rs 25,928 crore, which means a 94.47 per cent target was achieved as per the information revealed by Jagan, he said.
“When there is a positive and impressive revenue growth in the first half of the current financial year, why the revenue deficit of the State has already reached Rs 36,983.28 crore and registered at 217.09 per cent on the budget estimates for Rs 17,036,15 crore till August?’’ Dinakar questioned.
With respect to borrowings, as per budget estimates for the current financial year, they should be Rs 48,724.11 crore. But borrowings reached Rs 44,582.58 crore in the first five months. “It means that it has reached 91.50 per cent, then what about the financial repercussions for the remaining second half,’’ he asked.
Dinakar demanded that the Chief Minister depict the true and fair picture of the State's financial position rather than comparing it with incomparable figures for misleading the public.