KCR seeks 0.5 pc rise in TS annual borrowing limit

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday appealed to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to raise the annual borrowing limit for Telangana by an additional 0.50 per cent of GSDP as recommended by the 14th Finance Commission.

The Chief Minister, who met Jaitley in New Delhi on Sunday, referred to the letter of Centre giving its consent under Article 293 (3) of the Constitution of India to the state governments to raise the market borrowings, computed at 3 per cent of the GSDP provisionally for the first nine months of the financial year 2018-19.

As per the recommendations of 14th Finance Commission, the states which are in revenue surplus are eligible for raising market borrowings up to 3.5 per cent of GSDP. Accordingly, the Union government conveyed its consent to raise market borrowings up to 3.5 per cent of GSDP during the year 2016-17 and 2017-18.

As per the accounts finalised by the Principal Accountant-General (A&E), Telangana, the state for the financial year 2017-18 also ended with a revenue surplus of Rs 3,459.37 crore. The state continues to be revenue surplus for the fourth consecutive year, he said.

The Chief Minister said, “Since the state government fulfilled the conditions laid down for availing the additional fiscal space of 0.5 per cent of GSDP, I request you to consider the borrowing limit of the state be raised by 0.5 per cent of the GSDP for the year 2018-19 at the earliest.

As you are aware that there is a significant jump in the expenditure commitments of the state on account of flagship programmes like irrigation and provision for drinking water to every household. All of the works have reached an advance stage and are about to give benefit to a large number of people in the state.”

KCR urged the Union minister to give directions to the concerned for giving consent for the enhanced borrowing limit for 2018-19 as per the 14th Finance Commission.

The Chief Minister also requested the Union Finance Minister to release the fourth instalment of the special assistance for development of backward districts in the successor states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. He said that the first instalment assistance was released on February 2, 2016 amounting to Rs 450 crore at Rs 50 crore for nine districts of Telangana. 

The second instalment of Rs 450 crore was released on December 19, 2016 and the third was released on August 1, 2017. The UCs for the amounts released have also been submitted. The fourth instalment is yet to be released, he said. 

He also requested the Union minister for SHG bank linkage programme. He said that there were more than 4 lakh women Self Help Groups (SHG), who are pioneers in terms of taking up livelihood improvement programmes for their members. He requested the Ministry of Rural Development to give sufficient budget to release the dues of Rs 339.25 crore under NRLM to Telangana.