Centre urged to conduct forensic audit on AP finances
The BJP leader met union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman in Delhi on Monday.
Visakhapatnam: The state BJP president D. Purandeswari has sought the Centre to conduct a forensic audit on the AP finances and publish a white paper on the same with details of payables and corporation debts and mortgaged assets and sovereign guarantees issued.
The BJP leader who met union Finance Minister Nirmala Staraman during the latter’s visit to the state on Monday, complained that the state had defaulted on several payments and had also submitted to the High Court its inability to pay money for power purchases from IPPs in spite of court orders to pay.
Recalling that she made a representation in July on various financial irregularities perpetuated by the Andhra Pradesh government and estimated a total debt of AP at Rs.10.77 lakh crore, to which the Ministry in a written reply in Parliament said that the debt was only Rs.4.42 lakh crore taken from the RBI and did not mention anything about the other debts including corporation debts which were also sought by the MP in his question, Purandeswari alleged that several media owned by the state government which made lakhs of its volunteers buy its own family owned paper, published this aspect widely and greatly tarnished the state BJP efforts at protecting public interest of future generations safety on debts sustainability and repayment of loans.
“The state has not made payments to suppliers and contractors for over four years and there is no provision to pay interest also in spite of them collecting 18 per cent interest on delayed payments of municipal taxes, property taxes, electricity bills and state GST dues. Several members of Trade bodies have requested for help in getting their dues paid with interest. If they approach court, several cases are filed on them,” she alleged and requested the Finance Minister to ensure a mechanism where all genuine suppliers are paid with interest in a specified time frame of three months as their loans were becoming NPAs causing a chain reaction on defaults.
Observing that the current revenue of Andhra Pradesh was only Rs.90,000 crore and the Central government share of taxes was Rs.35,000 crore, in a total revenue of Rs.1.35 lakh crore, Purandeswari pointed out that the state expenditure as per budget is Rs.2.6 lakh crore. The rest of it is from the Central grants or borrowings from RBI and corporation diversions.
“For the past four years, they are working on accounting and budget management of the highest order. People are asking how a state can borrow every yer additional funds of Rs.50,000 crore on the same revenue of Rs.90,000 crore per annum,” she said.Noting that the current debt position of AP is close to Rs.11 lakh crore, she said that the interest at eight per cent per annum on this alone is Rs.88,000 crore. Repayment would be a minimum of Rs.36,000 crore a year if paid in 30 years. The state would need a minimum of Rs.1.24 lakh crore per year for servicing debt and repayment if it pays all suppliers legally with minimal interest, she pointed out and added that this explained that future governance would be a nightmare in Andhra Pradesh if preventive steps were not taken.
