Just a few months ago, everything was going well and then the Covid-19 outbreak triggered the financial crisis across the country.
The pandemic struck a hard blow to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the states have lost 90% of income from April to July 2020.
Taking a strong exception to the decisions taken by the GST Council on the payment of dues and compensation to the states, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the concerns raised on the payment of GST dues to the states.
In the letter, KCR pointed out that states are at the forefront of fighting Covid-19 and reviving the state economies. Telangana, during the past four months, had lost 35% of income, which is to the tune of Rs 8,000 crore.”
Earlier, Telangana CM also wrote a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman expressing the state’s opposition to the centre’s move.
CM said, “Options given to the states are not following the Act. Instead of extending a helping hand during the pandemic, the centre is denying the states their rightful claims. Linking these options to additional borrowings allowed under the Atma Nirbhar package the centre is denying the states the full benefit of the package.”
On the other hand, the government of Andhra Pradesh has pleaded with the central government to rescue the states from the financial crisis during the time of the pandemic.