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The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has said that the Telangana government had overstated its revenue surplus by ₹9,482 crore and understated its fiscal deficit ₹218 crore in the financial year 2018-19.
It said the anomalies occurred on account of “misclassifications and non-contribution to statutory funds”. Effectively, the revenue deficit of the State stood at ₹5,145 crore and fiscal deficit at ₹27,167 crore against the State’s estimated revenue surplus of ₹4,337 crore and fiscal deficit of ₹26,949 crore.
Out standing debt
But the fiscal deficit and total outstanding liabilities were within the stipulated limits, it said.
The CAG noted that the outstanding public debt stood at ₹1,65,164 crore in 2018-19, an increase of 16 per cent over the previous year’s figure. “Interest payments are increasingly consuming revenue receipts,” it pointed out.
“The maturity profile of outstanding public debt as of March 31, 2019, showed that 46 per cent of the debt or ₹76,262 crore is to be repaid over the next seven years,” it said.
The State’s revenue receipts saw an increase by 14 per cent over the last year’s figure to register ₹1,01,420 crore. The receipts, however, were lower by ₹29,555 crore or down 23 per cent. The revenue expenditure in 2018-19 had gone up by 14 per cent over the previous year to ₹97,083 crore. It, however, was lower than the budget estimates by ₹28,372 crore.
At ₹22,641 crore, the capital expenditure saw a dip by five per cent when compared to the capital expenditure the previous year.
The CAG asked the State’s the Finance Department to rationalise the budget preparation exercise to minimise the gap between the budget estimates and actuals.
Guarantees
With regards to the guarantees, the CAG said that the State stood guarantee for loans aggregating to ₹77,713 crore, which was 87 per cent of total revenue receipts of ₹88,824 crore in the previous year. This was within the ceiling of 90 per cent.
However, the CAG was concerned that the State government was extending guarantees to bodies that had not finalised their accounts.
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