Andhra's overdraft from RBI points to financial troubles

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Kerala are the top three states to avail special drawing facility (SDF) and ways and means advances (WMA) in November 2019, while 18 states did not avail the RBI's facilities.

The Andhra Pradesh government is heading towards deep financial troubles. The overdraft (OD) statistics provided by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under RTI Act suggest that AP has availed the OD facility to a tune of Rs. 47,682.87 crore in the last five financial years starting from 2014-15 to January 23 2020.

Sharing detailed statistics under RTI Act to this scribe, the RBI has stated that AP has availed maximum OD of Rs. 19,616.71 crore for 88 days in the financial year 2018-19. The RBI’s central public information officer (CPIO), Mr T.K Rajan, provided year-wise details of the OD availed by Andhra Pradesh. It may be noted that the Naidu government had exceeded the OD limit many times during the fiscal year 2018-19, and as a cascading effect, the YSRCP government was also forced to approach the RBI for an OD in 2019.

In a communication sent to Shamsher Singh Rawat, principal secretary (finance), GoAP, on 11 June last year, the RBI’s general manager, Mr Arvind Kumar, said that on 10 June, 2019, the AP government had availed OD of Rs. 699.99 crore for six consecutive working days and the number of days of the OD in that quarter were 16 in contrast to the guidelines which states that the OD of the state government shouldn’t continue for more than 14 consecutive working days. “The Reserve Bank of India, as banker to the state government, will be constrained to suspend payments, in case such conditions emerge,” Mr Kumar reminded Mr Rawat.

The letter under ‘most immediate’ category also suggested that the AP government make efforts to clear the OD immediately. Interestingly, the very next day (12 June, 2019) the RBI wrote another letter to the principal secretary (finance) stating that the OD as on 11 June, 2019, was Rs. 339.17 crore for seven consecutive working days, wherein it was also mentioned that the days of OD in that quarter were 17 days.

The RBI has stated that in 2014-15, the AP government has availed OD of Rs. 4,313 crore for 14 days. In 2015-16 it was Rs. 95.38 crore for six days, while in 2016-17 it was Rs. 1,295 crore for six days, and in 2017-18 the AP government availed OD to a tune of Rs. 8,625.81 crore for 38 days. However, in 2018-19 Andhra Pradesh has availed maximum OD to a tune of Rs. 19,616.71 crore for 88 days. In 2019-20, the current fiscal year, the state has availed OD to a tune of Rs. 13,736.75 crore. The duration of the OD days were 36, from April 2019 to January 23, 2020, according to T.K Rajan, CPIO of the RBI.

Sharing details of the financial accommodation availed by various state governments under different facilities, the RBI has said that Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Kerala have availed maximum funds under SDF and WMA during November 2019. The AP government has availed Rs. 1,612 crore for 19 days under SDF and Rs. 870 crore for 14 days under WMA. The Telangana government has availed Rs. 886 crore for 20 days under SDF, and Kerala has availed SDF of Rs. 318 crore for 29 days, Rs. 842 crore for 26 days under WMA, and Rs.284 crore for 14 days under the OD facility.

Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripural, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal did not avail SDF, WMA, or OD facilities in November 2019, according to the CPIO.