Hyderabad: A letter regarding resource gap funds written by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in May 2017 has put him in an embarrassing position. In the letter, Mr Jaitley promised that AP would receive Rs 138.39 crore in balance funds towards covering the resource gap. Recently, while reacting to the agitation staged by TD MPs in Parliament, Mr Jaitley said that there was no formula for the extension of financial assistance to cover the resource gap.
Mr Jaitley held discussions regarding financial assistance with officials from the AP government in Delhi. In the meeting, the officials from AP reminded him of the letter written to Mr Naidu in which he declared that AP would receive only Rs 138.39 crore balance towards the resource gap.
They asked that if there was no formula, then on what basis had he quoted the figure Rs 138.39 crore.
In response, the finance minister accepted that the figures quoted in the letter were incorrect, and assured them that he would give the state an additional Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 3,000 crore towards the resource gap.
