Telangana Government has received some relief in its struggle to raise financial resources to meet its commitments in the last quarter of the current financial year.
The Union Finance Ministry is learnt to have given a go ahead to the State to raise market borrowings of ₹9,000 crore during the January-March quarter enabling it to meet some of its commitments. The permission from the Union Finance Ministry will help the Government to participate in the auction of securities by Reserve Bank of India on January 16 to meet at least part of the commitment. Senior officials said the State has planned to raise ₹2,000 crore during the auction of securities slated next Tuesday.
The Centre’s nod came after Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking liberal financial assistance to Telangana which was facing financial problems on account of the “mismanagement” by the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Government.
The quantum permitted by the Union Finance Ministry will, however, be not sufficient to meet the requirements of the State which proposed to raise at least ₹13,000 crore during the last quarter. The Government has been struggling for finances to credit the amounts assured under Rythu Bandhu, farmers investment support scheme estimated around ₹8,000 crore for the rabi season.
Crediting the amounts into accounts of farmers owning one acre land had been completed and the process for farmers owning two acres had commenced recently. The market borrowings allowed by the Centre would suffice to meet Rythu Bandhu commitments leaving the Government to scramble for resources to meet other schemes.
The situation arose as the State had already exceeded the limit of borrowings set by the Union Finance Ministry for the current fiscal. The Union Finance Ministry said, in its communication a couple of months ago, that the borrowing limit for Telangana for the current fiscal was arrived at ₹57,813 crore but had been reduced to ₹42,225 crore after adjusting the over borrowing of the previous financial years amounting to ₹15,588 crore.
The State raised another ₹4,400 crore in November and December through auction of securities taking the total borrowings to ₹42,551 crore, over ₹300 crore higher than the limit fixed by the Union Finance Ministry.
