Telangana govt on a high over booze sale, raises target

Hyderabad: In the wake of steep decline in the revenue targeted from land sales, the government seems to be looking towards mopping up about Rs 16,000 crore from liquor sales, excise duty and licence fee.According to officials, there has been steep increase of liquor sales in the third and fourth quarter of 2016-17. Following this the government has doubled the revenue target to Rs 9,000 crore as VAT on liquor sales.

The government has so far earned more than Rs 13,000 crore. Officials said that share of the central taxes and duties would be around Rs 17,000 crore as against Rs 14,000 crore this financial year. However, the target to generate non-tax revenues (registration fee, mining, dividends, fees, interests and user charges) has been reduced to Rs 6,600 crore from Rs 17,540 crore as the land registrations has come down drastically due to demonetisation effect.

The government has proposed Rs 26,850 crore as grant-in-aid in the new financial year in the revenue receipts. In 2016-17, it was Rs 14,500 crore but succeeded in getting Rs 13,500 crore, officials said.