Andhra Pradesh stops bills to pay staff salaries

Hyderabad: The AP government will not pay any bills for three days to ensure that there is no problem in paying salaries to the employees.

 

With the state government on the brink of going into overdraft, the Centre has released Rs 700 crore to the government which requires Rs 2,700 crore to pay salaries.

 

The state government will get about Rs 2,100 crore from the Centre as its share of taxes on December 1. It will need another Rs 600 crore to pay salaries. To save this amount, the government has stopped all payments.

 

The finance department has told the treasury that no bills are to be paid except in emergencies till the end of the month. A senior official of the finance department said this was a precautionary measure.

 

The state government can borrow up to Rs 4,000 crore  via public debt, this financial year and is likely to write to the Centre for approval. If the government does not borrow, it may have to go into overdraft. On the other hand, the government has sent a report and requested the Centre to sanction Rs 1,000 crore as advance for the loss by the recent spell of heavy rains. The Centre had announced Rs 1,000 crore assistance a month ago but the money has not been released.