Andhra Pradesh is gearing up to enrich its coffers by selling the red sanders, an endemic variety of trees which have for long faced the axe of the smugglers.
The demand for red sanders and the illegal activity related to it inspired the blockbuster multi-lingual movie, ‘Pushpa’.
Red sanders are found in eastern ghats forests in a limited area and its wood is in demand in the Chinese market where it is used to make furniture and other products. The red sanders logs seized by the forest and police officials lie in possession of the state government which will be up for sale.
Recently, AP CM N. Chandrababu Naidu held a review meeting with government officials and discussed different ways and means to generate revenue. One of the suggestions was to form a committee and facilitate the sale of red sanders stocks. Since the stocks available with the government could fetch hundreds of crores, it was felt monetising them would result in substantial income. The CM called for a report on the volume and value of the red sanders available.
According to government sources, the proposal related to the committee has already been submitted and is under scrutiny. In the last two years, the government through auctions successfully sold 530 tonnes of red sanders. Based on its grade and quality, the sold logs fetched impressive price. Now, it has been learnt that the government is a position to sell upto 4,800 tonnes. The auction will be facilitated as per international trends and keeping the Chinese market trends in mind since buyers are expected to be from China.
Meanwhile, the opposition party, YSRCP, has criticised the ruling TDP in Andhra Pradesh based on their assessment of 2024-25 provisional accounts of the state published by CAG.
Former Finance Minister and YSRCP leader, Buggana Rajendranath alleged that the provisional numbers reflect financial mismanagement and lack of fiscal discipline under Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s leadership.
“The revenue receipts had declined from ₹1,73,767 crore in 2023-24 to ₹ 1,68,443 crore in 2024-25. The state’s own revenues witnessed a very low year-on-year growth of only 3.08%, and non-tax revenue saw a reduction of ₹ 640 crore. During the YSRCP regime 2019-24, despite overwhelming odds that had resulted from the Covid-19 outbreak the state’s own tax revenues grew at a CAGR of 10.04%,” said Rajendranath.