AP Finds a Saviour Right in Its Backyard

Cash Strapped Andhra Pradesh has got an unexpected help from right in its backyard. The state which inherited a deficit budget post the bifurcation is resorting loans to run its day to day business thanks to an insensitive center. The state is urging the center to increase its FRBM limit so that it can go for more loans.

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But then, the saviour is right in its backyard. Several government departments have a whopping 19,610 Crore Rupees in 12 Banks in about 70924 accounts. These are the funds which the state government gives to the department as matching grants to several center sponsored schemes. The unspent money is deposited in these accounts.

The 19,610 Crore is almost equal to the loans the state brings in any year. The departments are only getting nominal interest on this amount while the state government is playing a whopping 7% interest on the loans it brings. If the state uses these funds instead of the loans, it would have saved 1562 Crore but then nobody cared for that until now.

The state government had prepared a complete list of these funds and is planning to withdraw them very soon. There are some legal issues with the center for doing that, the state government is already in the process of clearing those decks. Once they are cleared, these amounts will be directed to the government PD accounts and will be used for the government schemes.