Telangana got zero from Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package: KT Rama Rao

Hyderabad: Telangana got nothing from the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package announced by the Central government in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said on Tuesday. After Covid set in, the State government announced several initiatives especially for the life sciences sector, bulk drugs, agriculture, fertilizers and […]

Hyderabad: Telangana got nothing from the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package announced by the Central government in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said on Tuesday. After Covid set in, the State government announced several initiatives especially for the life sciences sector, bulk drugs, agriculture, fertilizers and pesticides industries to bring relief to the sectors.

“I was keen on knowing what happened to the Rs 20 lakh crore and where it went. My department, after searching, ultimately found that the Rs 20 lakh crore package was not an incentive but only loans,” he said, replying to a question in the State Legislative Council.

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The Minister said these loans were termed collateral-free loans given in the name of guaranteed emergency credit line. In Telangana, for 1,43,290 units, Rs 5,389 crore loans were given and these loans have to be paid. Explaining that the package had not benefited the MSMEs, the Minister said several constructive suggestions were given to the Central government after getting feedback from the industry. The suggestions were given to the Union Finance Minister and Union Commerce Minister, he said, adding that there was no response from them.

“We did not even get a letter that our suggestions were under consideration,” he said, adding that Telangana got zero from the package. Pointing out that Telangana continued to attract investments, he said there was no decrease in new investments despite the Covid-19 situation.

“But since April 2020, grounding of new units took a dip to some extent. A total of 102 units in 2021-22 and 1,990 units in 2020-21 units started production,” he said. As many as 2,06,911 people would get direct employment from the investments that were approved since Covid started in April, he said.

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