Andhra Pradesh: Rs 500 crore central fund pending

Hyderabad: The state government had sent a report quoting the Accountant General (AG) that the revenue gap in the 2014-15 financial year was about Rs 16,200 crore and requested release of these funds. The Centre released Rs 2,300 crore in the beginning of previous financial year and another Rs 500 crore in the last month of the same financial year. The Centre told the state that it would release another Rs 500 crore in the last week of March 2016.

To release these funds the Union Finance Ministry asked the state government to send several details. The Centre asked about the expenditure on subsidies in the year 2014-15; later it asked about the details of the expenditure on development works under plan and non-plan and also the expenditure on several schemes. The state government sent all these details. But, to date, the Centre has not released Rs 500 crore as promised.

An official in the finance department said  finance officials in Delhi indirectly indicated that the Centre will not release any more funds towards outstanding arrears of revenue gap. AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, speaking at a meeting on Friday, said the Centre had released only Rs 2,800 crore against Rs 16,200 crore.

Meanwhile, a AP finance department official said the Centre had released more funds than expected by the state government in the previous financial year. In the Budget, the state government expected about Rs 10,000 crore but the Centre released Rs 14,600 crore. However, the Centre did not release funds to some schemes related to welfare schemes. Due to this, the total expenditure had come down by 20 per cent in the welfare departments in the previous financial year.