The Congress government headed by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has decided to release a White Paper on the State’s finances soon and asked the officials to submit detailed information in this direction.
The departments concerned were asked to furnish information pertaining to expenditure made in the last 10 years and the benefits that reached the last mile by spending the amounts. The issue assumes significance as the Congress had been charging the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government of indulging in misuse of the State exchequer and thus, pushing the revenue surplus State into “debt trap”.
From total debt of around ₹60,000 crore inherited due to the bifurcation of the erstwhile united State, Telangana’s outstanding public debt crossed ₹ 3.5 lakh crore by the end of the first half of the current fiscal and this is in addition to over ₹1.3 lakh crore guarantees given to different corporations over the past few years. The government had made a provision of ₹22,407 crore for debt servicing in the current year’s budget indicating the magnitude of the debt.
According to newly inducted Minister D. Sridhar Babu, officials concerned had been asked to expeditiously submit the information so that the White Paper could be released as early as possible. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy was likely to hold a review meeting with the officials on Friday to assess and understand the State’s financial situation first hand.
The Minister said Mr. Revanth Reddy-led Cabinet had also resolved to study the power supply situation in detail and understand the situation. This was to ensure effective implementation of the Congress’ promise of 24-hour reliable power supply to all sections in addition to working out modalities for operationalising the guaranteed supply of 200 units of free power to domestic consumers.
“Officials concerned have been asked to prepare a comprehensive action plan in this direction. There was no planned implementation of the schemes in the previous government and the Congress is committed to fulfil all the assurances it made,” he averred.
