Vijayawada: The Opposition Telugu Desam’s attempt to target the ruling YSR Congress government for the state’s finance problems has boomeranged in Parliament on Tuesday.
TD MP Kanakamedala Ravindra caused an embarrassing situation for himself and to the party when the Centre made it clear that the previous TD government mismanaged the state’s finances.
Ravindra raised an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha, seeking details about the state’s finances. In reply, the Union minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary detailed the house about a huge excess expenditure by the then TD government, after the 2014 state bifurcation.
He quoted from a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the AP State Finances Audit Report, which stated that there was an excess expenditure of Rs 1,62,828.70 crore in AP, pertaining to the years 2014-15 to 2018-19, (Naidu’s term), which was yet to be regularised.
The minister said explanatory notes were furnished for only an amount of Rs 51,677.74 crore against Rs 1,62,828.70 crore that was “spent” by the concerned departments of AP.
The Union minister also said that as per Article 205 of the Constitution, it was mandatory for a state government to get the excess expenditure over a grant/appropriation regularised by the state legislature. Also, the excess expenditure should have been regularised after discussion of the appropriation accounts by the Public Accounts Committee of the state. This had not happened.
The Union minister said that for this purpose, the departments concerned are required to submit explanatory notes for the excess expenditure to the PAC through the finance department of the state.
AP minister for industries, commerce and IT Gudivada Amarnath slammed the Telugu Desam for its government’s financial mismanagement during 2014 -19, as was confirmed by the Centre in the Rajya Sabha.
He said the TD’s false narrative against the YSR Congress government was exposed.
Chief minister Jagan Reddy has been repeatedly saying the current financial trouble being faced by AP was due to the mismanagement of fiancés by the previous TD government. It was now confirmed by the Centre, he added.
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