Uttar Pradesh has scripted a new chapter of development and economic progress with leaving far behind other States of the country in terms of poverty alleviation, stock market investors, domestic tourists, number of income tax return filers and preferred investment states of banks.

This bright picture showing prosperity has emerged from different reports of the State Bank of India Research, the Reserve Bank of India, National Stock Exchange, Ministry of Tourism, Income Tax Department and NITI Aayog.

UP has also made a big leap in terms of taking funding from banks for various projects. According to the Reserve Bank’s August, 2023 bulletin, UP’s share in total project funding from banks was only 1.1 per cent in 2013-14 but now it has touched 16.2 percent.

According to the recent NITI Aayog’s report on poverty index, the biggest decline in the number of poor has been registered in UP. About 3.43 crore people have been brought out of the quagmire of poverty. Besides, the state has left Maharashtra behind in terms of the number of new investors in the stock market.

Apart from this, the record of domestic tourists has been broken. India tops the list with 31 crore tourists. According to the National Stock Exchange, 1.26 lakh new investors joined the stock market in April in UP while 1.18 lakh new investors from Maharashtra entered the stock market in the same period. In terms of adding new investors, UP has been at the first place in the country for the last six months.

As per the Income Tax Department, UP has also reached the second position in the number of ITR filers. In June 2014, only 1.65 lakh ITRs were filed from the state but in June 2023, this number increased to 11.92 lakhs.

UP has become the first state in the country in terms of number of domestic tourists. According to the annual report of the Ministry of Tourism, more than 31 crore domestic tourists came to the state in the last one year, which is 18.4 per cent of the country’s total domestic tourism. UP, once known as Bimaru, has now become a revenue surplus state.

In 2016-17, the state tax revenue was about Rs 86,000 crore, which has increased to more than Rs 1.47 lakh crore in 2021-22. The 2016-17 sales Tax/VAT was around Rs 51,883 crore which has crossed Rs 1.25 lakh crore today. Importantly, the VAT rate on petrol, diesel and ATF in Uttar Pradesh is lower than many states and there is no change in the rates after May 2022.