The State government has rejected the Central government’s offer to allow enhanced borrowings under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management norms as it is linked to reforms in the power sector.
Minister for Finance T. Harish Rao said the State would be deprived of ₹25,000 crore over the next five years at the rate of ₹5,000 crore a year if it did not accept the Centre’s offer. For the sake of these ₹25,000 crore, the State should implement a series of reforms in the power sector which were particularly against the interests of the farmers. “The autocratic attitude of the Centre can be understood by this,” he said presenting the budget for 2022-23 in the Legislative Assembly on Monday.
He asserted that the State government was not interested in making the farmers pay for the power, which was being provided to them. That was not the policy of Telangana and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao told the Centre that such a policy would not be implemented “as long as he (Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao) is alive”.
