The central government has agreed to provide funds to the state under Special Assistance for Capital Investment (SACI). In this first installment of Rs. 1500 crores have been released. The government is working on ways to raise funds to put the state in financial trouble.
As part of this, the state government has already identified all the ways to get funds from the center and to that extent, the state government sent proposals. In this background, State Finance Minister Payyavula Keshav went to Delhi twice and spoke to the Union Finance Minister and senior officials of the department.
Recently Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu also met the union finance minister. On the other hand, the Center is implementing a special scheme to increase capital expenditure in all states. The Center will raise these funds in the form of a loan without having to pay any interest for about 50 years.
The Center has agreed to give Rs 2,200 crore to the state during this financial year under the SACI scheme. The Center will release 66 percent of the total cost of the project approved by the Center. Currently, Rs 1500 crore has come to the state as the first installment. The government intends to give these funds exclusively to contractors who have done construction work, as huge amounts of bills are pending since time immemorial.
As contractors are hesitating to take up any government work in the state fearing non-payment of bills, the state government is focusing to create confidence among them so that they can move works forward.
Meanwhile, a high-level delegation from World Bank and Asian Development Bank is beginning their visit to Amaravati on Tuesday and they will continue their visit till next Tuesday. They will be examining project-wise projections of the state government, so as to finalise release of Rs 15,000 crore loan for the state.
These representatives will meet the state government and CRDA officials respectively. In between, they will visit the capital for three days exclusively to inspect incomplete construction activities.