Harish Rao requests Sitharaman for early release of pending grants

Hyderabad: State Finance Minister T Harish Rao has requested Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to release early the Central grants to Telangana.

In a letter to her, Rao said that grants under Section 94 (2) of the A.P. Reorganisation Act for the development of backward areas for 2019-20 and the current year amounting to Rs.900 crore are yet to be released to the State. He also requested that the grant may be extended for five years beyond 2021-22.

The second issue in the letter related to 'denial' of 14th Finance Commission grants to local bodies amounting to Rs 817.61 crore (Rs 315.32 crore for rural local bodies and Rs 502.29 crore for urban local bodies). Though the State has fulfilled the conditions, the grants were denied without any specific reason. Rao brought to her notice the pending release of special grant of Rs 723 crore recommended by the 15th Finance Commission for 2020-21 as the tax devolution for the State was projected to decline in absolute terms in 2020-21 as compared with 2019-20 ."Grants recommended by the commission were never denied in the past", Harish said the share of Telangana "wrongly released to Andhra Pradesh" amounted to Rs.495.20 crore under the Centrally-sponsored schemes in 2014-15. Though the matter was taken up with AP and the Accountant-General, the amount is yet to be adjusted to Telangana.

The minister requested Nirmala to consider release of IGST settlement dues amounting to Rs 210 crore, which is the due share of Telangana in the IGST amount of Rs 13,944 crore transferred by the Centre to the Consolidated Fund of India in 2018 19, the letter mentioned.