Hyderabad: Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Friday, June 19, said Telangana should focus on sectors capable of generating sustained revenue for the state, stressing that the government’s natural and institutional resources should be treated as investments for wealth creation.
Chairing a meeting of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Resource Mobilisation at the Dr BR Ambedkar Telangana Secretariat, Bhatti Vikramarka reviewed measures to enhance revenue generation across tourism, mining, transport, registrations and industrial sectors. Ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Jupally Krishna Rao attended the meeting.
‘Telangana should fully leverage tourism potential’
The Deputy Chief Minister directed officials to fully leverage Telangana’s tourism potential and effectively utilise government lands and properties located in tourist destinations to generate revenue for the state exchequer.
Citing states such as Goa and Kerala, he said tourism contributes significantly to employment generation and economic growth. He asked officials to adopt a more aggressive approach towards the development of temple tourism, eco-tourism and health tourism in Telangana.
Bhatti Vikramarka also suggested preparing plans for weekend helicopter tourism and directed officials to explore tourism development projects in Srisailam and the Nagarjuna Sagar backwaters.
He noted that several tourism assets across the state remain underutilised and instructed officials to develop them under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. He asked departments to prepare a comprehensive PPP-based tourism development action plan and place it before the Cabinet along with the required policy proposals.
The Cabinet Sub-Committee also reviewed desilting activities at Lower Manair, Upper Manair, Medigadda and other locations. It expressed the view that permissions could be granted to crusher units complying with all statutory requirements. The committee observed that robo sand was available at a lower cost than river sand.
Sand exports to other states
During the meeting, Uttam Kumar Reddy suggested studying the feasibility of exporting sand to neighbouring states as part of efforts to enhance revenue generation.
Officials informed the committee that registrations in the state had increased significantly and that the slab-based revision of land values was yielding positive results.
The committee further reviewed revenue mobilisation measures in the Transport department, including issues relating to Bharat (BH) Series vehicle registrations. Referring to a recent court ruling in favour of Kerala on taxation of BH Series vehicles, Bhatti Vikramarka directed officials to convene a meeting of transport ministers from southern states to discuss taxation-related issues.
The meeting also reviewed revenue generation through the regularisation of industrial lands and discussed additional measures to strengthen the state’s resource mobilisation efforts.
Senior officials from the Finance, Tourism, Industries, Transport, Registration and Revenue departments attended the meeting.
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