- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE southern Indian state of Telangana has bagged the top position in the country with the highest average annual growth rate (AAGR) of state’s own income as per the latest data from the central government’s ministry of statistics and programme implementation, the Times of India reported on Tuesday (24).
Telangana’s own annual income currently is Rs 66,688 crore (£6.5 billion) and a growth rate of 11.52 per cent since its formation in 2014.
The state of Odisha came second with AAGR of own income at 9.74 per cent; Jharkhand was third with 8.9 per cent, Uttar Pradesh fourth with 8.6 per cent and Andhra Pradesh, the state which was bifurcated to create Telangana, fifth with 8.38 per cent.
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Telangana’s finance minister T Harish Rao announced the latest estimates from the central government on Monday (23) and added that the state has witnessed a 90 per cent rise in its income collection from 2014-15 to 2020-21. In its formation year, Telangana’s own income was Rs 35,146 crore (£3.4 billion).
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Rao said, “Many development-oriented policies, fiscal measures and welfare schemes that enhanced livelihoods, particularly in the agricultural sector, are the cause for the state’s stead growth in enhancing its own income.”
The minister said Telangana’s good work could be gauged from the Gross State Domestic Product and income growth rate — two major indicators of a state’s financial performance. In 2017-18, Telangana’s growth rate overtook that of its western neighbour Karnataka and has maintained the lead since then.
Rao, who dismissed criticism that Telangana was overburdened with debt, said the state earned the greatest yearly average growth in GSDP among all southern states at 11.7 per cent since 2014-15.
