HYDERABAD: Finance Minister T Harish Rao came down heavily on Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for limiting the State’s borrowing eligibility to just 3.5 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) for 2022-23 and imposing a condition to implement the power sector reforms in return for raising another 0.5 per cent of GSDP. With the condition, the State’s borrowing eligibility would come down by Rs 5,000 crore, Harish said.
After handing over 164 houses to the beneficiaries in Chintamadaka village in Siddipet rural mandal on Thursday, Harish Rao said that the Centre allowed Telangana to raise Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBM) llimit up to 4 per cent of the GSDP in 2021-22 Budget. But, in her Budget speech, Sitharaman said: “In 2022-23, in accordance with the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission, the states will be allowed upto 4 per cent of GSDP of which 0.5 per cent will be tied to power sector reforms.”
Reacting to this, Harish Rao said: “Youth might have heard the speech of Nirmala Sitharaman. Every year, Telangana is eligible for loans up to a limit of 4 per cent of GSDP under the FRBM Act. In 2021-22, we raised loans up to 4 per cent. But, in 2022-23, the borrowing eligibility has been limited to 3.5 per cent and the additional 0.5 per cent is subject to introducing reforms in power sector. The GSDP of the State is Rs 10 lakh crore and 0.5 per cent works out to Rs 5,000 crore,” Harish explained.
Later, he told the audience that power sector reforms meant fixing meters to agriculture pump sets. “Do you want meters for agriculture pump sets,” Harish asked the farmers. The farmers responded that they neither wanted meters to agriculture motors nor the BJP. Harish said that the agriculture price stabilisation fund had been halved in the Union Budget, which would adversely affect farmers.
“The TRS government is implementing welfare schemes for farmers. But, the BJP government is acting against their interests. There is no security for farmers under the Narendra Modi government,” the Finance Minister alleged.
