Centre Gives And Takes Back Rs 982 Cr From AP!

The government of India has reportedly taken back Rs 982 crore granted to Andhra Pradesh state under different provisions and this left the AP government embarrassed. In details, AP government was sanctioned Rs 682 crore as GST compensation on November 25th and earlier this week, another Rs 300 crore was granted.

However the total amount of Rs 982 crore has not reached the AP state’s treasury and it was confirmed by a state Finance department official. He added that the Centre has taken back the amount citing some old liabilities dated back to the (AP) bifurcation.

Every day, the Centre receives information from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about how much money gets deposited to the state’s treasury and in what form. It contains details of the state’s income, debts, payments, and how much has been received from the Centre.

This information is known only to one or two top officials in the Finance department. The officials received information regarding the sanctioned grants from the Centre, they learned that the money was not credited in the state’s treasury. Later it was found that it was excluded in the name of old liabilities.

With the Centre taking back the grants, the Finance department (AP) is seriously worried about paying salaries. The cash-starved Andhra Pradesh government is unsure about paying salaries and there are also doubts on making pension payments too. Staff of at least five departments in the state Secretariat and half of the IAS officers (bureaucrats) were yet to get their salary for November month.

The AP government has exhausted its annual borrowing limit of Rs 48,000 crore even before the third quarter and there are less chances of more borrowings. The Finance department officials want to approach the Union Finance ministry to sort out the old liabilities.