The Telangana Government has decided to raise ₹16,000 crore through market borrowings in the first quarter of the upcoming financial year 2024-25.
The Government has submitted an indent for raising the amounts through the auction of securities during the April-June quarter. It has decided to raise ₹5,000 crore in April in three tranches, ₹1,000 crore on April 2 and ₹2,000 crore each on April 8 and 23 during the auctions to be conducted by the Apex Bank.
The Government proposed to raise ₹6,000 crore in May and ₹2,000 crore each during the auctions on May 7, 14 and 28.
According to the tentative calendar of market borrowings released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Telangana Government will raise ₹5,000 crore in June — ₹1,000 crore on June 4 and ₹2,000 crore each on June 11 and 25.
The actual amount of borrowings and the details of the States/Union Territories participating would be intimated two to three days before the actual auction day and would depend on the requirement of the State Governments/Union Territories as well as approval from the Union Government under Article 293(3) of the Constitution and market conditions, the RBI said.
It may be recalled that the previous government headed by the Bharat Rashtra Samiti faced restrictions on borrowings from the first quarter of the previous financial year with the Union Finance Ministry limiting their quantum citing financial management issues and over borrowings by the then Government. The restrictions continued till the Congress came to power in the December elections.
But Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and his Deputy Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in January and explained the State’s financial situation. They convinced the Centre to allow additional borrowings so that the State could meet its immediate requirements besides taking steps to stabilise finances.
The Centre had accordingly permitted the State to go for additional borrowings and Telangana raised market borrowings of over ₹10,000 crore in the past couple of months. It has to be seen whether the Centre would permit the State to raise the borrowings as indicated or whether it would impose restrictions similar to those during the BRS Government in the coming days.
