The Government remains heavily cash-strapped as the revenue loss suffered on account of the economic slump and disturbance caused by ongoing Telangana/ Andhra agitations has touched Rs. 5,045 crore by December-end.
Add Rs. 1,600 crore to this — which is the differential between the Rs. 16,100 crore sought by the State through open market borrowing and what was finally approved by the Centre (Rs. 14,500) — and this will take the overall revenue gap to Rs. 6,645 crore. The Centre has disallowed the State to raise Rs. 16,100 crore on the ground that the revenues through this route is being permitted only to four per cent of GSDP. With the State GSDP calculated at 3.71 lakh crore for the fiscal, the 4 per cent of this worked out to about Rs. 14,500 crore.
As an immediate fallout of Rs. 6,645-crore revenue loss, the Plan outlay in 2009-10 budget put at Rs. 40,184 crore, will come down to Rs. 33,539 crore. This implies that capital expenditure will face a drastic cut. As a result, a fund crunch will haunt irrigation projects and several infrastructural projects.
Some programmes to modernise power transmission/distribution networks will be partially affected, as fund releases will be sluggish to APTransco. Scholarships and tuition fee reimbursement, however, is not likely to be affected, but Indiramma housing and the like may not escape the cut, sources said.
The sources said Stamps and Registration, Mines and Geology and Transport departments, besides APSRTC and APTransco, are incurring heavy losses, failing to achieve the targets so far. No plan has yet been indicated by APTransco whether the tariff will be increased. It sought a month to submit its annual revenue requirement report to A.P. Electricity Regulatory Commission for 2010-11.
Comment :
Unfortunately looks like losses could go beyond 15000 crore, as we approach March end and wipe the treasury clean. The common man and the poor, could eventually suffer a lot since PDS, Health and Sanitation across the state could get badly hit.
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