For the first time in last 5 years, the tax revenue earned in the first four months of 2019-20 by 21 states is 2.3% less than the revenue earned during the same period in 2018-19. 13 of the 21 states have seen a fall in cumulative tax revenue in 2019-20 (till July 2019) Government (both Central & State) spending has a significant bearing on the Indian economy. The salaries paid out to the government employees, spending on various government run schemes, payments to various services providers, huge capital expenditure of the government etc. greatly contribute towards economy & hence the GDP. The extent of revenue generated by the government has a significant bearing on this expenditure. State governments need to invest ininfrastructure, spend on different schemes etc. And to meet the increasedexpenditure year after years, it is critical that the tax revenues of statesincrease accordingly in addition to the central grants & devolution of taxrevenue by the centre. Tax revenues form a key component of state government revenueswith the sources being various state-level taxes and the state’s share incentral taxes as decided by the finance commission. About the Data In this story we look at the tax revenue earned by states in the first four months of 2019-20 (till July 2019) and compare it with the tax revenues earned during the same period in the last financial year, to understand the trends. The data of tax revenue of states between April & July 2019 for financial year 2019-20 is compared with the tax revenue during the same period in 2018-19. The data for state tax revenues is taken from the account statements submitted by respective states with Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). The details for the states of ArunachalPradesh, Assam, Bihar and Sikkim are not available for the current financialyear 2019-20 on the CAG website and hence are excluded from the analysis alongwith Delhi and Goa which do not have reports for both the years. Data for few otherstates is not available on the CAG website for specific months which would behighlighted in the story as necessary. In all, data was completely availablefor 21 states. Together in the 21 states for whichdata was available, tax revenue in the first four months of 2019-20 is ₹ 4.92 lakh crores compared to ₹ 5.04 lakh crores in 2018-19 i.e.fall of 2.3%. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat among the states with reduced Tax Revenue during this period Among the larger states, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka have reported a fall in the tax revenue for this period in 2019-20 compared to the same period in 2018-19. The total tax revenue earned by Andhra Pradesh during these 4 months in 2019-20 is ₹ 15,017 crores while during the same period in 2018-19, it was ₹ 26,114 crores i.e. fall of 42.7% in the tax revenue. The other states do not have such a steepfall in the tax revenue, but the difference is significant. Gujarat andKarnataka, which are among the higher tax earning states by volume have alsoreported a fall in the revenue when compared to same period in 2018-19 by 8%and 12% respectively. The tax revenues of Karnataka fellby ₹ 5,057 crores in the first four months of 2019-20 compared to the sameperiod in 2018-19. Among other states, Gujarat’s tax revenue fell by ₹ 2,823 crores, Punjab’s by ₹ 1,636 crores and Kerala’s by ₹ 1,581 crores, in the first four months of 2019-20 compared to the sameperiod in 2018-19. Many other states like Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,Odisha, Rajasthan & Tamil Nadu have also reported a marginal fall in taxrevenue during this period. West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Jharkhand among states with increase in Tax revenue during this period West Bengal has reported asignificant increase in Tax revenues during the first four months of 2019-20compared to the same period in 2018-19. Tax revenue of West Bengal for these fourmonths in 2019-20 has increased by ₹ 6,810 crores compared to 2018-19i.e. an increase by 26.4%. Uttar Pradeshalso reported an increase of ₹ 5,486 crores while Telangana has reportedan increase of ₹ 902 crores during this period.Uttar Pradesh’s tax revenue increased by 7.4% while Telangana’s tax revenueincreased by around 3.8% during this period. Among smaller states, Manipur reported a significant increase in Tax revenues In the case of smaller states, taxrevenue for Manipur has increased by ₹ 336.9 crores in the first fourmonths of 2019-20 compared the same period in 2018-19. Even in the case ofHimachal Pradesh, tax revenues have increased by ₹ 121.9 crores during the same period. The figures for July’19 are notavailable for Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and Uttarakhand.