FM dismisses leaked letter as regular correspondence

Amaravati: Reacting to reports about SBI's concerns on public finances of the state in response to a loan proposal of Rs 3,000 crore by Andhra Pradesh Power Finance Corporation, finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy said that it was part of regular correspondence and he did not know how it was leaked.

Addressing a press conference at the Secretariat on Friday, Rajendranath Reddy said that the ratings would be given by agencies like Crisil and Brickwork who have their own criteria for credit worthiness.

"In January, Crisil gave A+ while Brickwork gave A- and Power Finance Corporation approached SBI for loans. There was a sharp rise in guarantees by the state by 2018 when TDP was in governance," he said.

It is worth to mention here that the SBI asked the APPFC to substantiate on how would it repay if the bank lent Rs 3,000 crore loan as asked by it. This correspondence took place on September 30.

Rajendhranath Reddy said that the outstanding guarantees by the state rose from Rs 9,665 core in 2017 to Rs 35,964 core in 2018 during the previous government. "The then chief minister N Chadnrababu Nadiu and former finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu always were careless with state finances and went out of the way to draw supplementary grants.

They took loans from all the corporations, including Civil Supplies and have the dubious distinction of drawing Rs 5,000 crore on a single day," he said. The finance minister accused the previous government of paying huge amounts to their favoured contractors while public utility bills like midday meals, fee reimbursement, land acquisition, discoms, hospital subsidies, outsourcing employees' salaries were kept pending.

The Finance Minister said that the irregularities in Polavaram were mentioned even by CAG and the reverse tendering is justified going by the manner in which the state finances were dealt with by TDP government.