Naidu meets members of loan waiver committee

Discusses various options to pool money

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu met the members of the committee constituted for resourcing funds for the loan waiver at his camp office here on Saturday evening.

Parliamentary party leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and chairman of the committee Y Sujana Choudhary gave a presentation to the Chief Minister on the available resources which could be utilized for the loan waiver.

Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Financial Advisor to the government CS Rao and committee member MBN Rao also discussed various options with the Chief Minister.

The government has plans to pool in money through the sale of seized red sanders which could fetch Rs 1,600 crore, by availing loans on future income on sale of river sand and other minerals besides levying a ‘farmers welfare cess’ on liquor and transport revenues.

The loan waiver is the most expensive poll promise by the TDP.

The total loans are to the tune of Rs. 87,612 crore, including Rs.13,500 crore DWCRA loans. Vice-Chairman of the State Planning Board, C Kutumba Rao, who was also present in the meeting, had earlier said the committee was working out modalities for crop loan waiver and examining some options to provide relief to farmers.

Chief Secretary IYR Krishna Rao, principal secretaries in the Finance Department Ajay Kallam and PV Ramesh were also present in the meeting.