The Telangana Budget for Financial Year 2025-26 is a perfect balance between welfare and development, and to generate revenues the State Government will focus around four areas— Registration and Stamps, Land, Excise and Cess, according to senior officials in the Finance Department.

Some changes had already been made in excise, changes were in the offing in other areas too, the official said.

When asked by businessline on whether the State government is depending too much on Grants in Aids and Contributions and whether the figures were inflated, the official said, “it is not the case as the source and scope of revenue have been shown under different heads.” Besisdes, the State is hopeful to realise the targeted revenue through Grants in Aid and Contributions.

Being conservative

When asked, whether the government is being conservative in spending in this Budget, the Special Chief Secretary holding the Finance porfolio, K Ramakrishna Rao, said, “Yes, you could say that.”

According to the him, the State government is moving on the right path and the gap between projections and actual realisations is narrowing now. This was possible because the government has put in place an effective mechanisms to ensure that loopholes in the tax collections are bridged and projected revenue is realised.

A fine example for this was sand, which has seen a significant increase in revenues in the past few weeks. Telangana was generating revenue of ₹1crore a day from sale of sand in the past and it has been increased to ₹2.5 crore a day now. The gap is being reduced by robust measures while the State has evolved ways to ensure effective tax collection.

But, the official was quick to point out that this would not mean indiscriminate hike in taxes as payers cannot be squeezed beyond a point. Besides, Telangana is on the top in terms of state’s own tax revenue and is next only to Karnataka in terms of tax collection.

These measures were in addition to the efforts that are being made to secure maximum revenue through Centrally Sponsored Schemes, especially the ones in which the Centre and State are partners. This has been possible because the State has been ensuring timely release of matching grants in these projects so that there are no delays in release of funds from the Centre.

Published on March 19, 2025