Liquor, land to fill TG coffers

Hyderabad : Since 2024-2025 financial year was a big challenge to fulfill the promises in the first year of the Congress-led government, the State has relied on non-tax revenues and liquor sales to mobilise funds to meet the financial requirements in the new budget for 2024-2025 financial year.

The sale of costly government lands and generating additional revenues through mining activities would be among the steps being taken for raising funds. The government has targeted Rs 25,000 crore revenues from liquor sales alone in the budget proposals. The government is planning to increase the prices of liquor and also open more licensed liquor outlets and give permission for new bars in the State to increase revenues from liquor sales.

In the previous financial year, the state excise and prohibition department earned Rs 20,300 crore from liquor sales and now efforts would be made to increase revenue by Rs 5,000 crore.

Apart from that, the government is ready to bring reforms in every revenue-generating sector to achieve the big target of Rs 1.38 lakh crore tax revenues in the 2024 -2025 financial year. The target of Rs 68,000 crore from tax on commodities would be a big task before all tax generating wings. The stamps and registration wing was asked to mobilise more revenues with a target of Rs 18,000 crore through property registrations and collection of the stamp duty. State Owned Tax Revenue (SOTR) was the only main source and the government already started streamlining the revenue-generating wings to ensure the achievement of the targets. Finance minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said that the collection of tax revenue was slow in some wings in the first quarter of the current financial year and the government is confident of earning tax revenues at the desirable level in the next three quarters.