Telangana tops in tax revenue growth with 18% rise in collections

West Bengal, Jharkhand take second and third spot respectively, Andhra Pradesh a distant seventh

The Telangana government has claimed that the growth rate in the state's own tax revenues was the highest in the country during 2016-17. The state has registered a 17.81 per cent growth in its own tax receipts, at Rs 42,564 crore for the year, from Rs 36,130 crore in the previous financial year.

Citing the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)'s data on revenue growth of fifteen states, chief minister K Chandrasekhra Rao said that his government was well positioned to pursue the welfare path with renewed vigour and confidence helped by higher revenue growth.

The government has attributed the achievement of higher growth in own tax revenues to the receipts from sales tax (VAT), Excise and the Stamps and Registrations departments.

While the growth in own tax revenues is considered as an important indicator of the overall tax buoyancy of a particular state, non-tax revenue from mining, forestry among other sources besides the share in Central taxes also forms a part of the state finances.

According to the data, West Bengal came close second with 17.16 per cent growth in own tax revenues at Rs 37,295 crore followed by Jharkhand with a 16.42 per cent rise at Rs 10,380 crore. Sibling Andhra Pradesh came seventh with 9.94 per cent growth at Rs 39,907 crore. The size of tax revenues in AP and Telangana was almost the same in 2015-16.

Own tax revenues of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, the two large states with substantial tax base, have registered a growth of 11.35 per cent and Rs 9.14 per cent at Rs 73, 634 crore and Rs 1,19,602 crore respectively during the year 2016-17. Among the other major states, Punjab, Gujarat and Odisha registered a moderate growth during the year, as per this data.

However, the performance of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu on the tax front was not included in the exercise as the comparative data was not available. In 2015-16 the own tax revenues of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu stood at Rs 67,377 crore and Rs 69,993 crore respectively.