YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has taken a revolutionary decision to curtail sale and consumption of liquor in the state, knowing fully well that it would result in loss of revenue to the state exchequer in a big way.
He had to do it because he had received representations from womenfolk during his historic padayatra, complaining about how consumption of liquor by their men was ruining their lives. Implementation of prohibition in a phased manner was a commitment given to the women.
But Jagan is feeling the pinch of loss of revenue from liquor and he is looking for alternative ways to compensate this loss.
As part of that Jagan is planning to put forth a proposal before the 15th finance commission members who would be visiting Andhra Pradesh from December 18 to 20.
He is planning to request the team to see that the Centre compensates for the loss of revenue due to accrue from liquor sales.
The Jagan government wants the Centre to treat Andhra Pradesh as a special case in view of the implementation of prohibition and hence, grant additional money to compensate for the loss of revenue.
But one wonders whether such the Centre would consider such a request, as it is not releasing money even for the approved projects like Polavaram.
Secondly, AP is not the only state where there is prohibition at least partially, as there are other states like Gujarat and Bihar, where there is prohibition.
During the Telugu Desam Party regime, too, the Centre has refused to compensate for the revenue deficit caused to the state due to implementation of crop loan waiver scheme. As a result, the state had to do it on its own in instalments.
Interestingly, Jagan is also planning to ask the Centre to write off central loans given for various projects, especially pending bills worth Rs 39,423 crore, which would have a severe impact on the current fiscal year budget.
