At last, RBI allows TS govt to borrow

Hyderabad: Finally, the Reserve Bank of India has permitted the Telangana government to borrow Rs 4,000 crore through sale of security bonds in the open market.

While the TRS claims that the Centre had to finally agree to their genuine demand, the BJP says that they have once again proved that they do not discriminate between states. All sanctions and permissions depend on certain rules. They said the Centre had accorded similar permission to Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. They can raise revenue by selling the stocks through auction.

The auction will be conducted on the RBI Core Banking Solution System on June 7. "The Government of Telangana is allowed to sell stock by way of auction for an aggregate amount of Rs 4,000 crore for the period of 13 years," the RBI statement said.It may be mentioned here that the Union Finance ministry raised objections to mobilising loans through corporations by the Telangana government from April in the current financial year. As a result, the State government was denied permission to borrow. This had pushed the state into deep financial crisis. The state had planned to mobilise Rs 10,000 crore funds in the first two months of the new financial year to meet the financial requirement for Rythu Bandhu and Dalit Bandhu. 

Rythu Bandhu scheme alone requires Rs 7,500 crore.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao held a high-level meeting with Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and top officials of the state Finance department and reviewed the availability of financial resources to implement Rythu Bandhu scheme from the next week. He instructed the officials to see that the RBI accepts the intent submitted in April and May months for borrowings.

Officials said that the release of funds for Aasara pensions will also be hastened. The increase of liquor prices helped the state to mobilise more funds to the implementation of Dalit Bandhu scheme for which Rs 17,000 crore has been earmarked in the budget outlay.