Telangana which should be boasting of the surplus budget is now looking at the options of borrowing money from various sources. The surplus amount in the budget could not even meet the Rs. 4250 Crore, 25% of the crop loan waiver promise of the TRS government and now the government has borrowed Rs. 800 crore at an interest rate of 8.8 per cent in the open market. This amount was acquired from State Development Loans (SDL) which is normally used by State governments to fund their fiscal deficit.
On September 30th, the government has released Rs. 4,250 crore for farmers to meet 25 per cent of their crop loans and a couple of days earlier paid Rs. 1,600 crore as salaries and pensions to its staff which put a heavy burden on the exchequer. After the bifurcation, the income of Hyderabad is steadily decreasing as traders are beginning to file tax returns in Andhra Pradesh. These days Andhra Pradesh income is slightly more than that of Telangana’s.
