Cash crunch hits Telangana: Treasury freezes all payments except salaries
Hyderabad: All districts in Telangana are facing a severe cash crunch. The state government’s liabilities have touched nearly Rs 2,000 crore this month with pending bills mounting due to paucity of funds.
The treasury department has frozen all payments except employees’ salaries, and development works and welfare schemes are thus likely to get affected.
Adding salt to the injury, the Centre has cut tax devolution to Telangana by Rs 450 crore for November.
The ordeal of over 14 lakh students and 31 lakh farmers waiting for payment of fee reimbursements and crop loan waiver scheme arrears respectively is not likely to end in the near future, though Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has directed the finance department to clear fee reimbursement, crop loan and Arogyasri arrears this month.
The government owes crop loan arrears of nearly Rs 2,200 crore, fee reimbursement of Rs 2,000 crore and Arogyasri arrears of Rs 300 crore.
“Normally, TS receives nearly Rs 1,000 crore every month from the Centre towards 42 per cent tax devolution. It got Rs 6,000 crore from April to September. But for October, it got just Rs 550 crore. No reasons have been cited for this though there are reports that the Centre is taking up a mid-term review on its payments,” said an official sources in the Finance department.
Finance minister Etela Rajender, who is currently in New Delhi to take part in the GST Council meeting, has taken up the issue with Union finance minister Arun Jaitley.
Sources meanwhile said that contractors’ bills for road works, Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya have been stopped. Instructions have also been given to stop payment of bills for agencies implementing the mid-day meals scheme in schools, mess and cosmetic charges for students in welfare hostels besides scholarships.
Social security pensions for senior citizens and widows will also be delayed this month due to lack of funds. “Whatever funds were available in treasury have been used to pay salaries in all districts during the last three days,” added sources.
