Etela Rubbishes Reports on Telangana's Finances

Painting a rosy picture of the state's financial health and capability to cater to the needs of people through welfare schemes, Finance Minister Etela Rajender today said that tax efficiency resulted in the achievement of 6.61% growth in GSDP.

Speaking to the media at the Secretariat along with Special Chief Secretary (Finance) Pradeep Chandra, Rajender said that the Telangana government had achieved 90% to 95% of the targeted revenue receipts.

The minister added that efforts to get more revenues had fructified through initiatives in excise duty, stamps and registration duty, land sale, transport taxes and others.

Rajender said that revenues would increase further in the near future, and rubbished the opposition allegations and media reports of bankruptcy.

He also claimed to have spent 29% of the funds against the target of 30% to 32% this quarter.

He attributed the achievement of the targets to the initiatives of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao in various sectors with a focus on the welfare of the poor.

Every month Telangana used to get Rs. 9,700 crores from the Centre and took Rs. 1,500 crores as loans as per the RBI norms, and it could borrow a further Rs. 500 crores without opting for ways and means provisions. Compared to Madhya Pradesh, Telangana got an interest rate lower by 1.5%, he said.