Hyderabad: The Central government has made it clear that it will release only Rs 138 crore to the AP government as the balance amount to cover the resource gap for the year 2014-15.
In a letter addressed to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley says, “The Central government’s commitment is to provide Central assistance to bridge the gap for the period 2014-15 and not to cover expenditure incurred prior to this period, including the payment of PRC arrears.”
Mr Naidu had written to Mr Jaitley seeking an early release of the balance amount for 2014-15. In response, Mr Jaitley says, “I have been informed that while conveying the resource gap figure for 2014-15, the Account-ant Generals (AG) of AP and Telangana have indicated expenditure on certain new schemes introduced by the state governments during this relative period. The AP government has provided details of such expenditure, and based on this information the entitlement of the state has been worked out as Rs 1,814.89 crore, after taking into account the Rs 2,303 crore released by the Central government in 2014-15.”
He says that the Central government released another Rs 500 crore in 2015-16, and Rs 1,176.5 crore in 2016-17. He added that the balance amount of Rs 138.39 crore will be released in due course.
The Union finance minister says that the Central government has also released special assistance to the AP state under various provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act. He says that the Central government has released Rs 10,894.2 crore to AP since its formation. He says that this includes the release of Rs 1,979.50 crore to cover the resource gap for 2014-15, the development grant of Rs 1,050 crore for seven backward districts, Rs 2,500 crore for the development of essential infrastructure in the new capital city, and Rs 3,364.7 crore for the Polavaram Irrigation Project. He says the Central government has recently approved a proposal for the provision of special assistance measures for Andhra Pradesh by way of special dispensation in funding of externally aided projects and funding for the Irrigation Component of the Polavaram Project.
Meanwhile, the AP government has estimated the revenue gap for the year 2014-15 to be Rs 16,200 crore. It was expecting the Centre to release Rs 7,000 crore as resource gap funds.
