Hyderabad: The tenure of 13th finance commission will end on Tuesday. With it, the Telangana government has lost hopes of getting arrears amounting to Rs 2,150 crore from the Centre as recommended by the commission.
The Centre owes Rs 2,323 crore grants to Telangana based on the finance commission’s recommendations.
However, it just released Rs 150 crore on Sunday shocking the Telangana government.
The government has written nearly 40 letters to the Union finance ministry seeking payment of arrears during the last nine months and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao himself met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley several times seeking the same. However, it failed to yield the desired result.
With the 14th finance commission recommendations set to come into force from April 1, the fate of these arrears hangs in the balance.
However, finance minister Etela Rajender has still not lost hopes of the Centre clearing the arrears in the next two or three years.
“Not only Telangana. The Centre owes arrears to many other states. In fact, we have submitted a representation to the Centre seeking payment of arrears in the next 2-3 years. The Centre has responded positively and we hope it will materialise,” Mr Rajender said.
He stated that even the CM had also sought payment of arrears after the 14th finance commission comes into force, during his meetings with the PM and FM earlier, and they also agreed to look into the issue positively.
Though finance department officials are unsure of the Centre paying the arrears, they say it all depends on the political negotiations that will be held between the Centre and the TS government in coming days.
