Amaravati, July 2 (IANS) YSR Congress Party leader and former Andhra Pradesh minister Gudivada Amarnath took a potshot at HRD and IT Minister Nara Lokesh over his reaction to the state’s GST growth figures.

Reacting to Lokesh’s post following the release of GST numbers on Wednesday, Amarnath said it was heartening to see that, after 40 per cent of the coalition government’s term was over, Lokesh had found reason to comment on the state’s finances.

“Now, with the GST numbers for June 2026 being released, Nara Lokesh presumably got the impression that his government has done well on the GST front and hastily made a post on the same, claiming that the GST growth indicates growth, jobs and so forth. The source which Nara Lokesh quotes reveals many more things that he did not have the time or ability to take a deeper look at before patting himself on the back,” the YSRCP leader posted on X.

Citing the figures released by the Government of India, he pointed out that during the first quarter of FY 2026-27, Andhra Pradesh’s SGST (post-IGST settlement) showed a year-on-year growth of 25 per cent.

He said this was apparently the reason that motivated Nara Lokesh to make the claims.

“But if we look a little deeper, we identify that during the first quarter of FY 2025-26, Andhra Pradesh’s SGST (post-IGST settlement) showed a year-on-year growth of -7 per cent. This miserable performance during the previous year is what provided a base-effect advantage in the first quarter this year, contributing to an artificial growth. If FY 2025-26 performance had been poorer, then FY 2026-27 growth would have been even better. But that is no reason to be happy. Considering a post-settlement SGST of Rs 8,568 crore during Q1 2024-25 and a corresponding figure of Rs 9,978 crore during Q1 2026-27, the compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over the two-year period is only 7.9 per cent, offering no reason to cheer,” he said.

Amarnath mentioned that during the five-year period from 2019 to 2024, SGST revenues grew from Rs 20,611 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 31,130 crore in 2023-24, registering a CAGR of 8.60 per cent despite overwhelmingly challenging circumstances such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

“For the last two years, despite several discussions on the unattractive fiscal performance of the state, Nara Lokesh appeared to be oblivious to those developments and never even attempted to offer any explanation. Now, when one figure prima facie appears to be favourable to the government, without even taking a moment to understand the reason behind it, Nara Lokesh rushes to take credit,” the YSRCP leader added.

–IANS

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