Vote-on-account session in Feb

• Govt worried over drop in tax revenue

• Budget volume to be around Rs 45,000 cr

• Salary bill goes up to Rs 62,000 cr

Hyderabad: The State government will convene the AP Legislative Assembly and Council in the first week of February to place vote-on-account budget, if the current session is to be adjourned sine die as scheduled originally on January 23.

According to informed sources, the vote-on-account budget would be for the next four months and the finance department has already taken up necessary exercise by calling for demands from various departments.

The vote-on-account is likely to involve a volume of Rs 45,000 crore and there would be no new schemes in it. The present session, convened to discuss A P State Reorganisation Bill, would end by January 23. An official in the finance department said that nothing would prevent the government from convening both the Houses again for vote-on-account even after February 5.

The session may not last more than three to four days. On the other hand, the salary bill of the government employees had gone up to Rs 62,000 crore from Rs 54,000 crore with the consideration of interim relief payment in the 2014-15 Budget.

Interestingly, the tax revenues in 2013-14 are not according to the projected levels. It is learnt that there was a nine per cent drop in tax revenue compared to last year. The revenues in excise and sales tax including VAT also had shown a downward trend. The official said, “The present inflation rate is around 12 per cent and the government used to initiate special measures every time to rake in additional revenues to meet the impact of the inflationary trends”.

But this time it looks to be a different scenario. He said that the overall drop in tax revenues will be around Rs 7,500 crore till date in the current financial year.