Revenue declined by 8% in the first half of FY20

Vijayawada: AP Finance Minister B Rajendranath Reddy has said the revenue of the State government declined by eight per cent in the first six months of the current financial year compared to the same period in the previous financial year.

He rejected the claim made by Opposition parties that the State revenue declined by 40 per cent. He said the State was also facing the impact of economic slowdown in the country.

The Finance Minister replied to a question raised by Legislative Council members D Jagedeeswara Rao, G Deepak Reddy and Manthena Venkata Satyanarayana Raju in the Legislative Council on Tuesday, the second day of the winter session at Amaravati on Tuesday.

He said the State revenue for the first six months was nearly Rs 30,000 crore between April and September and it was Rs 31,400 crore for the same period in the previous financial year.

He said there was shortfall in the grants from the Union government. He pointed out that the entire country was facing economic slowdown and the GST earnings of the Central government were declining for the past few months.

Rajendranath said grants related to Centrally-sponsored schemes will be released in the last quarter of the financial year and local body grants from Central government are not released regularly. He said the Union government was yet to release Andhra Pradesh share of GST.

He made it clear that the Andhra Pradesh government did not sell properties or lands of the government for the development of infrastructure under the Build Andhra Pradesh scheme.

He alleged that the previous TDP government failed to pay bills worth Rs 40,000 crore to various departments and caused huge burden on the YSRCP government.

He said bills related to medical and health, education, social welfare and power generation companies worth thousands of crores were pending and alleged that the TDP government had diverted the funds for Pasupu Kunukma scheme just before the elections.