Hyderabad, March 23 Telangana Prohibition and Excise Minister Jupally Krishna Rao launched a scathing attack on the opposition BRS on Monday, questioning its moral right to criticize the state's current excise policy.
Intervening in the budget discussion initiated by BRS MLA T Harish Rao in the assembly, the minister sought to squarely place the responsibility for the state's soaring liquor consumption on the previous regime.
Krishna Rao pointed out that the Excise department's revenue, which stood at Rs 10,000 crore when Telangana was formed, had systematically been pushed to Rs 35,000 crore by the time the BRS exited office.
"The statistics offer an indictment of who truly incentivized liquor sales and fostered a culture of addiction across the state," he said.
The minister further stated that the Congress government has maintained fiscal restraint by not enhancing taxes during its tenure.
Highlighting the success of the 2025-27 new liquor policy, he informed the House that the government had accrued nearly Rs 2,800 crore from non-refundable application fees alone, indicating a robust response to the new framework without additional tax burdens on the public.
Rao noted that the state's debt, which was a manageable Rs 65,000 crore in the pre-bifurcation era, had spiralled into several lakh crores during the decade-long BRS rule.
Earlier, Harish Rao claimed that the total debt was just Rs 4.17 lakh crore when the BRS exited. However, the Revanth Reddy-led government raised Rs 3.70 lakh crore in loans in just two and a half years.
It is now proven that budget figures have become fiction, while expenditure has become a glaring truth, Harish Rao alleged.
