Vijayawada: After meeting Union minister Arun Jaitley, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday said that the state government had submitted the revised cost estimate of Rs 54,119-crore for the Polavaram project to the Centre.
In a letter submitted to Mr Jaitley on pending projects, Mr Naidu sought special assistance at 90:10 ratio for externally-aided projects (EAPs) as well as centrally sponsored schemes (CSS), as was being given to special category states. This would total Rs 20,010 crore.
He asked for permission for the state government to clear outstanding loans towards EAPs, small savings and Nabard and allow it to borrow from internal lenders like Nabard, Hudco and commercial banks.
He asked Mr Jaitley not to make the special assistance provided to the state a part of state FRBM limits.
In a separate letter submitted on exemption of GST on Fibernet, the Chief Minister said as per the new GST, customers will suffer an additional burden of Rs 411 for set top boxes, Rs 232 for IPTV box, Rs 232 for GPON basic and Rs 339 for GPON enterprise. Packages ranging from domestic to premium will put an additional burden of Rs 5 to Rs 75. The Chief Minister requested the GST council to review and reduce the rates for Fibernet goods and services to 5 per cent from 18 per cent.
