Telugu Desam Party legislator and chairman of Public Accounts Committee Payyavula Keshav on Saturday demanded that state finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy release a white paper with facts and truths on the massive loans and financial situation in the State.
Keshav said the minister should stop indulging in self-praise and issuing self-certifications in financial discipline. Buggana was misleading everyone by saying that AP was bringing loans within the FRBM limits.
Addressing an online press conference, the PAC Chairman said he would prove how the Jagan Reddy regime had made two times more loans over and above the FRBM limit usually set by the Centre for any State.
Like nowhere in the country, the AP government got a higher relief from the loan ceiling but still the banks and financial institutions were not coming forward to give loans.
Keshav asked who would give new loans to AP when it was an open secret that the YSRCP government was irresponsible and not in a position to pay even EMIs.
The State's situation was so pathetic that outside guests were coming here not to make investments but to forcibly collect the loan repayments. This unsavoury experience was witnessed in the energy sector a few months ago.
Keshav dared Buggana to release white paper providing complete details of loans taken directly by the Government and also through its various corporations.
“Could this Government provide facts to the people on the actual expenditure made on the development projects and welfare programmes?” he asked.
The PAC Chairman described Buggana's latest statement as one full of untruths and half-truths. The Finance Minister was not even daring to address a press conference on the State economy. He was making contradictory statements.
On the one hand, he would say the Coronavirus pandemic caused a dip in revenue. At the same time, he would boast of a better performance of the State economy despite Covid-19.
Keshav challenged Buggana to provide facts on actual revenues of the State, overall capital expenditure, spendings on welfare, salaries, schemes and advertisements.
In some schemes, the released funds to beneficiaries were less than the expenditure made on advertisements. Even after three years of ruling the State, the Finance Minister was issuing false statements with fake figures.
Keshav dared Buggana to come clean on funds spent in the most crucial irrigation projects in the past three years. The ongoing financial anarchy has pushed the State backwards by 20 years. One complete generation would suffer its adverse consequences.
