Andhra Pradesh government has found a new idea to tap money from the citizens. It is going to levy streetlight tax on its people from the next month. This fresh tax will be proportionately collected with the property tax. So, those paying huge amount for property tax have to pay more tax and it will be nominal for the lower property tax payers though usage is same for everyone. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is reportedly cleared this file recently.

The state government is levying this fresh tax on the people to recover huge losses power utlities have been incurring. During the 2014-15 fiscal year, 313.12 million units were supplied for lighting the streets across the state. This power supply costs Rs.170.81 crores, but Rs.5.46 crores recovered only from the Municipal corporations. Actually, state government is recovering these amounts from the funds granted by the Central government to the local bodies as a part of devolution of funds.

Everything goes fine as long as the Centre is releasing funds to local bodies, but problem starts when the flow of funds stops. Centre will stop releasing of funds, if elections for the local bodies are not conducted in time. The Centre held Rs. 1174 crores till date and obviosuly it is badly affecting the streetlight services. Hence, the state government has decided to transfer this additional burden on to the end user the citizen. But, what if when the Centre releases the funds as usually after elections are conducted for local bodies? Will it return the amount to citizens? Never, everyone knows.