The worsening financial situation following the demonetisation has force the Telangana Government to put on hold many of its plans including a new Secretariat building.
Amid the growing concerns that the scrapping of Rs1,000 and Rs500 currency notes was going to throw all the projections of State revenue into disarray, the Government had also decided to put on hold the plans to build the new headquarters for the 21 new districts. It has also put on hold all the Government payments specially to the contractors and the students scholarships till the end of the financial year. This was likely to affect the two prestigious projects of the State Government Mission Bhageeratha for drinking water supply and Mission Kakatiya for the restoration of irrigation tanks.
There were also indication that the Government will impose a ban on the purchase of new vehicles, new furniture for its officers and also recruitment of regular and temporary employees.
Such was the impact of the scrapping of big denomination notes on the day to day business activities that the State Government revenue this month was likely to be down by 50% from Rs5400 crores in various taxes.
State Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma, who along with the Finance Minister E Rajinder held a video conference with the district collectors instructed them to put on hold all the infrastructure projects including roads for the moment in view of the situation.
Apart from laying the foundation stone for the new secretariat building in Hyderabad, the State Government has also scrapped the plans for the shifting of the secretariat offices to other buildings due to the financial constraints.
Amid reports that the revenue of various departments was dwindling ever since Centre’s action on demonetisation more than a week ago, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has started tightening the belt.
In a reflection of dissatisfaction of the state’s ruling party with Prime Minister Modi’s act, the TRS member of Parliament B Vinod Kumar has demanded Chief Ministers’ conference to discuss the situation.
In a statement Vinod Kumar said that the Prime Minister should convene a meeting of the Chief Ministers to discuss the unprecedented economic crisis and social fall out of the move.
While the TRS was bemoaning that the demonetisation had severely hit the revenue of the State, the State BJP has defended Narendra Modi’s action. The party MlA NVS Prabhakar insisted that the move had benefited the State coffers.
“The State was receiving more money now as the citizen were paying their pending tax dues. Every public utility company in the State was claiming that it was receiving huge amounts from the tax defaulters”, he said.
On the social front the demonetisation has badly hit the marriage plans of thousands of families as they were unable to access their bank deposits.
Many parents had approached the bank managers with the printed wedding invitation cards to plead their case and appealed to allow them to withdraw a larger amount of money. But the banks have expressed their inability to do anything citing the restrictions imposed by the government.