Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi and urged him to hike the cap prescribed by Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act for raising loans.The chief minister also discussed the issues of the central government's help for the state's development and allocation of funds under various central schemes.Jaitley told reporters after the meeting that the chief minister made certain suggestions with regard to raising resources for the state and methodologies for the same.He wants the FRBM's limit for the state to be raised. He gave documents in support of that. Expenditure department will consider the feasibility," Jaitley said.
KCR, as the chief minister is popularly called, said the central government should relax the FRBM norms and allow the state to borrow loans up to 3.49 percent of Gross State Domestic Product (SSDP) against the existing limit of less than 2.7 percent.The state's representative in the national capital Venugopala Chary said KCR reiterated the requests made earlier.KCR also sought the central government's help for drought relief and more allocation of funds for Mission Kakatiya and Jalaharam, the flagship programmes of the state government for development of irrigation and drinking water supply.The chief minister also called for more funds for the development of backward districts of the state.
KCR later in the day will attend a meeting of the sub-committee of Niti Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) on devolution of funds to states and centrally sponsored schemes.KCR had earlier urged Niti Aayog to relax the FRBM norms so that the state could borrow more loans for taking up development schemes.He is of the view the FRBM guidelines for raising resources through borrowings for revenue surplus states should be on a par with the central government.The chief minister said such a relaxation would enable the newly-created states to invest in capital infrastructure to improve the economic growth.