Vijayawada: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu stressed the importance of increasing the state’s revenue, calling for the development of an AI-based tax regime in the state over the next two to three months.
On Tuesday, he was in a review meeting held by senior officials of the Secretariat’s revenue generation department, Naidu asked officials to develop a data lake and pass information from all departments, and ensure each department has a support AI-AI-Sable team and serves taxpayers through AI tools.
To increase revenue in the state, the Chief Minister called for a study to identify the possibility of significantly improving revenue generation. He said sectors like electronics, IT and services have better opportunities to earn more income for the government.
The CM observed that although households in the AP purchased a lot of gold, tax revenue at this time was disproportionate to sales. Officials must ensure there is no tax evasion.
Officials told CM that revenue-generating departments such as business tax, excise tax, stamps and registration, mines and forests have set the revenue target for AP for 2025-26 at Rs 2025-26. They said that was 29% higher than in the previous fiscal year.
They said that although business taxes and forest revenues fell from April 1 to May 11, it was evident in the collections of the stamps and registration departments. It mentioned the central-to-state tax share compared to the previous fiscal year, which fell 26% until May 11, officials said. In 2024-25, Rs 17117 crore has been provided to the state. So far, only Rs 12,711.7 crore has come from the centre, the current finance.
CM asked GST officials to curb illegal sales of alcohol brought to the Associated Press from other states. “Make sure to conduct alcohol sales in a transparent way through real-time tracking.” Naidu refers to the increase in alcohol revenue in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, asking officials why revenues fell in the Associated Press.
He directed them to identify the reasons and take appropriate steps to boost revenue from alcohol sales. He called on departments to try to exceed their monthly income targets in order to earn more for the national finance ministry.
CM asked officials to form a committee to sell red sander stocks in international markets to boost revenue streams in the state. He called for reporting how many tons of red sanders sold in the state and their international market value.
Officials told CM that the new GST policy will help increase GST revenue. This received Rs 28,842 crore in 2024-25, an increase of 14.84% compared to last year.
They said the Associated Press had revenues of Rs 2116 crore in April and it sounds like the state could earn Rs 338,82 crore by the end of the year.
Naidu insists that the Telangana government earns 75% of its revenue from Hyderabad, saying the Associated Press should explore more opportunities to earn more. He said the state must be able to stand alone by strengthening its source of income.
