Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will visit New Delhi on Thursday, June 2, and he is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Union ministers. Official sources have said the Chief Minister would reach New Delhi at 2 pm on Thursday and might meet the Prime Minister later in the evening. The Chief Minister is expected to request the Union government to increase the state's net borrowing ceiling for the current financial year, in the backdrop of the row over mounting debt burden and unaccounted loans.
For 2021-22, the Union government fixed a borrowing ceiling of Rs 42,472 crore but the state government borrowed Rs 55,000 crore. The total public debt of the state is projected to shoot up to Rs 4,39,394.35 crore in 2022-23, up from Rs 3,90,670 crore as per the revised estimate for 2021-22. This apart, the government stood guarantee for a sum of Rs 1,17,503 crore, borrowed by various state-run entities till December 31, 2021.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has been asking the Andhra government to furnish details related to loans raised by public sector undertakings, backed by the state guarantee. The CAG is yet to finalise the state's annual accounts for the 2021-22 financial year as the Andhra government did not furnish details of the liabilities, official sources said.
Consequently, the Union government is yet to fix the fresh borrowing limit, thereby limiting the state's scope for raising loans from the open market, the sources pointed out.
Due to various reasons, the Union government has put a squeeze on neighbouring Telangana's borrowing that has vastly hampered its cash flow. "We are also staring at a similar situation. Any such squeeze on borrowing will completely choke us, given our fragile financial status, a top AP government official said.
The AP Finance Minister and top finance officials have been regularly meeting Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman but could not make any headway. The Chief Minister is expected to take up the finances issue at the top political level with the Prime Minister.
Also, the vexatious Polavaram issue is expected to figure in talks between the two leaders, with the state seeking immediate reimbursement of Rs 3,000 crore for the project works already done, sources added.
The CM is also expected to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discuss the ongoing CBI investigation into the murder of the former's uncle YS Vivekananda Reddy, in which YSR Congress MP YS Avinash Reddy could be named an accused.