AP capital fund file missing, Budget proposal file might be caught in red tape

Hyderabad: While the Union government will be presenting its annual Budget on Friday in Parliament, the Central finance officials have informed Andhra Pradesh that they have not received any concrete proposals for the construction of the capital city. This means that they will not be able to make a provision for funds in the Budget.

State government officials, meanwhile, said that they had sent the proposals to the Centre and pointed out that the file might still be with lower-level officials and had not reached the secretary- level.

After sustained efforts by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and officials, the Centre had agreed to allot Rs 1,000 crore for infrastructure and Rs 580 crore for the construction of buildings in the new capital and had asked the state to send proposals.

AP finance department officials reached Delhi on Thursday to pursue pending projects and funds with the Centre. During discussions with Central finance department officials, they asked about the release of funds for the capital as had been assured. Central officials conveyed that they had not received any specific proposals from the AP government on construction of capital city.

Upon inquiring, the AP municipal administration officials, who said that they had sent the proposals to the Centre, said the file could be with lower-level officials.

Central officials, meanwhile, made it clear that unless they received specific proposals they would not be able to make a provision in the Budget to allot funds.

It is not clear whether the Centre will make a provision to allot Rs 1,580 crore for the capital in next year’s Budget or provide the same in the present year’s supplementary Budget.

AP finance officials said that the state would get funds before the end of March. They also said that the Centre had assured to release funds to fill the Budget deficit, '700 crore CST arrears and the balance of 13th Finance Commission funds before the end of March.